The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-04-07
BLOOD-SUCKING BATS.
Differing Stories About the YAM
pireD of South America.
ciany Species OF tho Queer Creatures
Which Arc Harmless and Even
Useful Arc Regarded rs
dangerous.


Ever since the South American con-
tinent was discovered, especially that
part of it lying between the Amazon
and Orinoco rivers, travellers have come
from there with wonderful tales of the
vampires, or, as they call them, blood
sucking bats. AS fact, little is
known about these pests, says the New
York Tribune. That there are blood
sucking bats which feed not only on the
blood of man but also animals is an un-
doubted fact, and though the writer
himself has never been bitten by one,
he has. while travelling in the interior
of British Guiana, seen Indians and
ponies that had undoubtedly been
bitten by these pests. In the case of n
man attacked the toe or nose is the
point punctured, while animals are Ii
able to be bitten anywhere. How the
bat does it's work has not been made
clear, for no man has yet awakened
while being operated on by one of these
bats, despite the fact that considerable
blood is extracted and more or less loss
OF blood takes place after the opera
ton. 1t is probable that the bat hovcvs
during the operation rather than rests
on the body. The rapid vibration of
the soft wings probably also has u
soothing effect upon the skin of the part
operated on.
The blood-sucllcrS belong to only two
or three species, and wherever these are
found there are also many others whose
food is only fruit or insects, or both.
The most natural mistake about the
bats which are innocent or proving on
ar ~ i- In az.
that vampyrus spectrum is IL blood
sucker. The stretch of wings of this
bat frequently reaches three feet, and it
has most fcrocicus aspect, with enor-
mously large and pointed canine teeth.
1t is perfectly certain that in most parts
of British Guiana this bat is only fruit
eater and is serious pest to fruit
growers. Bates and Edwards, who
travelled much in that country, vouch
for its harmlcssncss, and the writer
could never hear of IL case whore one
of these giant bats was even suspected
of being blood-suclicr. Wallace, how
ever, gives Il different account.
The vampires arc especially plcnti-
ful i'll the Amazon valley. Their carniv-
crouS propcnsities were once discrctl-
itcd, but are too we'll authenticated.
Horses and cattle arc often bitten, and
we found them in the morning covered
with blood, and repeated attacks weak
en- and ultimately destroy them. Some
persons arc especially subject to the at
tacEs of these bats, and as native huts
are never sufficiently close to keep them
ont, those unfortunate pa rsons are
obliged TO al"op completely muiIlcd up
III order to avoid being made seriously
i'll or even losing their lives"
Wallace, in saying that 1.-The huts arc
never sufficiently close to keep them
out" evidently uses the word vampire
as generic term and does not mean
the vampyrns spectrum, for that bat
would find no space large enough to let
him into even the loosely built huts of
the natives 1t is this slipshod way of
using the word vampire that brings
trouble to many Il useful bat. The
writer has been in house where every
prccantion was taken to keep out bats
which would have been n perfect bless
ms in the rooms, as they would have
caught hundreds of mosquitoes.