LONG NOSED BATS.
There are several varieties of these Bats having a long nose and Fox-like face. The best known is commonly called Roussette by the French, because of its being generally of a red or brown color; and Kalony, or Flying Fox, by the English. It is the largest of the Bat family. There are some which attain the size of a Squirrel, and sometimes measure four feet across the wings.
The animals belonging to this family inhabit Africa, Asia and the Oceanic Islands.
THE VAMPIRES.
The Vampires are the most dreaded of the Bat family. They are characterized by two nasal leaves situated above the upper lip. Wonderful tales have been told of their appetite for blood, and although their power of sucking the blood of the larger animals has been exaggerated, the tales concerning them are by no means devoid of foundation, neither are we surprised that such spectral visitants should have received the once terrible name of “vampire,” by which they are designated.
Mr. Gardner, during his travels in the interior of Brazil, stopped at Riachao. He says:
“For several nights before we reached this place, the Horses were greatly annoyed by Bats, which are very numerous on this sierra, where they inhabit the caves in the limestone rocks; during the night we remained at Riachao the whole of my troop suffered more from their attacks than they had done before on any previous occasion. All exhibited one or more streams of clotted blood on their shoulders and backs, which had run from the wounds made by these animals, and from which they had sucked their fill of blood.
“When a small sore exists on the back of a Horse, they always prefer making an incision in that place. The owner of the house where we stopped informed me he was not able to rear Cattle here, on account of the destruction made by the Bats among the Calves, so that he was obliged to keep them at a distance, in a lower part of the country; even the Pigs were not able to escape their attacks.”
These singular creatures, which are productive of so much annoyance, are peculiar to the continent of America, being distributed over the immense extent of territory between Paraguay and the Isthmus of Darien. Their tongue, which is capable of considerable extension, is furnished at its extremity with papillae, which appear to be so arranged as to form an organ of suction, and their lips have also tubercles symmetrically arranged. These are the organs by which they draw the life-blood both from man and beast. These animals are the famous Vampires of which various travellers have given such wonderful accounts.
Gardner says: “The molar teeth of the true Vampire, or Spectre Bat, are of the most carnivorous character, the first being short and almost plain, the others sharp and cutting, and terminating in two or three points. Their rough tongue has been supposed to be the instrument employed for abrading the skin, so as to enable them more readily to abstract the blood; but Zoologists are now agreed that such supposition is altogether groundless. Having carefully examined in many cases the wounds thus made on Horses, Mules, Pigs and other animals, observations that have been confirmed by information received from the inhabitants of the northern parts of Brazil, I am led to believe that the puncture the Vampire makes in the skin of animals is effected by the sharp hooked nail of its thumb, and that from the wound thus made it abstracts the blood by the suctorial powers of its lips and tongue. That these animals attack men is certain, for I have frequently been shown the scars of their punctures in the toes of many who had suffered from their attacks, but I never met with a recent case. They grow to a large size, and I have killed some that measure two feet between the tips of the wings.”