154 GUIDE TO THE 
into an outhouse, he found that it dropped a bat which he 
at first thought was its young one, but, on picking it up, it 
turned out to be a small bat resembling the Pipistrelle 
of Europe, the blood of which the lyre bat had been suck- 
• 
big from a large bleeding wound behind the ear. He con¬ 
tinued his hunt after this Indian Vampire, and at last 
succeeded in capturing it alive. The little bat, although 
exhausted by the loss of blood, was alive on the following 
morning, and when Blyth placed the two together in a cage ? 
he relates, that no sooner had the lyre bat perceived the 
other, than itfastened upon it with the ferocity of a tiger, 
again seizing it behind the ear, and made several efforts to 
fly off with it; but finding it must needs stay within the 
precincts of its cage, it soon hung by the hind legs to 
the wire of its prison, and after sucking its victim till 
no more blood was left, commenced devouring it, and 
soon left nothing but the head and some portions of 
the limbs.” 
The visitor should now continue onwards to the 
right, to the neighbouring 
Division No. g, which contains two South American 
Rails and some examples of that very curious bird of the 
Philippine Islands, the Blood-breasted pigeon, Phlogoenas 
cruentata , which has a mark on its white breast resembling 
a newly inflicted bleeding wound, the very feathers forming 
a depression in its centre, as if the result of a blow. How 
so remarkable an imitation of a wound came to be gradually 
evolved, and what purpose this mimicry now serves in 
the economy of this bird, are subjects for speculation. 
Passing round to the south-west end of the house, a 
flight of steps leads up to 
Division No, io, where a Happy Family is to be 
