OEDEE OF CHEIEOPTEEA. 
533 
which is the consequence of the wounds, is a cause of debility, and 
might bring about disastrous consequences. 
The naturalist Azara, who observed a large number of these 
American Bats, has afforded us valuable information concerning 
their habits. It is usually on the croup, shoulders, or neck, that 
they bite beasts of burden, because there they find a secure 
resting-place. The wounds they inflict are neither extensive 
nor deep, but small incisions made by the horny papillae with 
which their tongue is armed, and which only puncture the skin. 
The blood, therefore, with which Yampires gorge themselves 
comes, not from the veins or arteries, but from the capillary 
vessels of the skin. They sometimes attack sleeping poultry, and 
bite them on the crest, or the other appendages which decorate 
their heads. Most frequently gangrene of the wound supervenes 
in these subjects, and death follows. 
Azara fully confirms their sanguinary proclivities with regard 
to Man, having himself on several occasions experienced their 
effects. At four different times this naturalist had his toes bitten 
when he was obliged to sleep in the open air. But the sensation 
was so painless that he did not awake, and knew nothing of his 
mishap until morning. He suffered from the effects of these 
wounds for some days, although he did not think it necessary 
to pay any attention to them. 
The same traveller adds that Yampires do not live on blood 
except when insects are scarce. He also gives an opinion, but 
without mentioning it as his own, or expressing his belief in it, 
but which is credited by the natives, that in order to lessen the 
sensation of pain in their victims, these animals fan with their 
wings the part they are about to wound. 
A contemporaneous naturalist, M. de Tschudi, who travelled in 
Peru, also studied the Cheiroptera. He says that it is common 
enough to find cattle which have been bitten by a Phyllostoma 
during the night, in a very miserable plight in the morning. 
It was not without great trouble, and constant friction of 
the injured part, that M. Tschudi was able to save one of his 
Mules which had been wounded in this manner. On another 
occasion, an inebriated Indian was bitten in the face, and such an 
amount of inflammation ensued that his features were scarcely 
recognisable. 
