MODE OF ATTACK. 247 this orifice the animal continues to suck the blood until it is obliged to disgorge; that it then begins again, and thus continues sucking and disgorging till it is scarcely able to fly; the sufferer meanwhile sleeps on, not unfrequently continuing to sleep from time into eternity. The captain further states that on one occasion he was attacked himself, and that on waking up from his sleep he cbserved several small heaps of coagulated blood around the spot where he had lain, and that from these it was estimated that during the night he had lost from twelve to fourteen ounces of blood at least. No wonder that with such circumstantial evidence before them writers on Natural History have striven to keep up the reputation of the Vampire, and have now and then embellished the story with little additional touches of their own. Thus Mr. Wood in his "Zoography" quotes the account of Captain Stedman, and then goes on: “it is said to perform the operation by inserting its aculeated tongue into the vein of a sleeping person with so much dexterity as not to be felt, at the same time fanning the air with its large wings, and thus producing a sensation so delightfully cool that the sleep is rendered still more profound, and the unfortunate person reduced almost to death before he awakes." The picture is well drawn, but unfortunately some of its most striking features are altogether imaginary. The truth of the matter seems to be that while these Bats do occasionally attack the exposed feet of persons that they find asleep, the injury they inflict is never serious unless, as Cuvier says, the wound becomes envenomed by the climate. It is wellknown, however, that they attack horses and cattle and smaller animals, although it is extremely doubtful whether any of these even are ever actually killed from the effects of their bites. Between the two great divisions of the Bat tribe—the Insectivorous and the Frugivorous, or fruit-eating kinds-there is an obvious dissimilarity in the conformation of the teeth, in the character of the digestive organs, and in other less important points of structure. In the former division, which includes by far the greatest number of species, the molar teeth are set with pointed tubercles, adapted to crush the harder parts of their insect prey, while their canines are frequently of large size, and extremely sharp pointed. The intestinal canal, again, is unusually short, and evidently intended for the digestion of animal food. On the other hand, in the Frugivorous Bats, the molar teeth are furnished with rounded eminences adapted for the mastication of vegetable food, while the stomach is of an exceedingly complex character, and the intestines are many times the length of the body. In these Bats too, there is no unusual development of the nose or ears, and in many cases the tail is considerably shortened, and the membrane between the hind limbs greatly reduced, or wholly absent. All these characteristics mark the Bats of this division as being little qualified for the pursuit of living prey, but rather designed to subsist chiefly, if not exclusively, on vegetable food. The strictly Frugivorous Bats comprise but one family-the Pteropide or Rousette Bats, the Flying Foxes already alluded to. These Bats are confined for the most part to the tropical regions of the Old World, over which, however, they are widely distributed. One of the most remarkable of the number, and one which, as to its habits, may be taken as a representative of the rest, is the Kalong of Java (Pteropus Javanicus), an enormous creature, with a fox-like head, measuring five feet in the expanse of its wings. Our knowledge of this animal is chiefly derived from Dr. Horsfield, who states that it is very abundant in the lower parts of Java, where it lives in troops, often of several hundreds, which frequent large trees like the banyan. The greater part of the day they pass in sleep, hanging motionless, with the head downwards, and the wings wrapped about the body. They have little resemblance to living beings, and by persons not accustomed to them are readily mistaken for a part of the tree, or for fruit of uncommon size suspended from its branches. In general these societies preserve a perfect silence during the day, but if they happen to be disturbed, or a quarrel arises amongst them, they emit sharp piercing shrieks, and shuffle about in such an awkward manner as to present a very ludicrous spectacle. In consequence of the sharpness of their claws, their attachment is so strong that they cannot readily leave their hold without the assistance of the expanded membrane, and if suddenly killed in their natural attitude during the day, they continue suspended after death. It is necessary therefore to oblige them to take wing by alarming them, if it be desired to obtain them during the day. Soon after sunset they quit their hold of the tree, and set off in quest of food to the POPULAR ANTIPATHY. 249 villages and plantations, where they occasion much mischief by attacking and devouring indiscriminately almost every kind of fruit, from the cocoa-nuts which surround the villages of the peasantry, to the rare and delicate productions which are cultivated with care by princes and chiefs of distinction. In the lower parts of Java there are few situations where this night wanderer is not constantly observed, and the chase of the animal affords occasionally a very agreeable amusement to the inhabitants during the beautiful serene moonlight nights of that part o. the globe. According to Dr. Bennett there are at least two species of these Bats to be found in Australia. The commonest is Pteropus Edwardsii, which occurs in great abundance about Morton Bay, and the northern districts of New South Wales, where they may be seen in the daytime hanging in dense masses from the uppermost branches of the lofty gum-trees, which bend under the burden as though they would break off and come crashing to the ground. In the neighbourhood of Sydney these Bats are rarely seen, but in the year 1858 a number of them were observed suspended from the topmost branches of the lofty trees in the Sydney Botanic Gardens, where they attracted considerable attention. In nearly all the countries where these great fruit-eating Bats occur, they are hunted by the natives as an article of food; and Leichhardt, the Australian traveller, assured Dr. Bennett that they were by no means unpalatable, notwithstanding that they have when alive a strong and by no means agreeable musky odour. It is owing in great part, no doubt, to the peculiarity in the form of the Bats, and to the unnatural character which thus seems to be stamped upon them, that they have always been regarded with more or less of superstition and dread. The poets of almost every age have employed them as the emblems of all that is dark and terrible, and in the popular imagination they are ever ranked with those ill-omened creatures and" chimeras dire " which excite the feelings of loathing and horror. That it is especially the wings of the Bat which have procured for it a place amongst these proscribed and hated creatures may be inferred from the fact that those organs are always taken by the artist as the type and model of the wings of the ministers of evil, as those |