THE AMAZON DISTRICT. 
449 
The annexed list of the other larger mammalia of the 
Amazon district, will serve to confirm the statement of 
the extreme poverty of these regions in that class of 
animals. Owing to the loss of my notes and specimens, 
many of the specific names are doubtful : such are marked 
thus — ? 
Fhyllostoma hastatum . — This is a common bat on the 
Amazon, and is, I believe, the one which does much in- 
jury to the horses and cattle, by sucking their blood ; it 
also attacks men, when it has opportunity. The species 
of blood-sucking bats seem to be numerous in the inte- 
rior. They do not inhabit houses, like many of the frugi- 
vorous bats, but enter at dusk through any aperture they 
may find. They generally attack the tip of the toe, or 
sometimes any other part of the body that may be ex- 
posed. I have myself been twice bitten, once on the toe, 
and the other time on the tip of the nose; in neither 
case did I feel anything, but awoke after the operation 
was completed : in what way they effect it is still quite 
unknown. The wound is a small round hole, the bleed- 
ing of which it is very difficult to stop. It can hardly be 
a bite, as that would awake the sleeper ; it seems most 
probable that it is either a succession of gentle scratches 
with the sharp edge of the teeth, gradually wearing 
away the skin, or a triturating with the point of the 
tongue, till the same effect is produced. My brother 
was frequently bitten by them, and his opinion was, that 
the bat applied one of its long canine teeth to the part, 
and then flew round and round on that as a centre, till 
the tooth, acting as an awl, bored a small hole; the 
G G 
