The Athena press. [volume] (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942, 1910-02-18
BLOODSUCK|NC BATS
These Pests Are Plentiful In the
Forests of Brazil.
THEY ARE TRUE VAMPIRES.

But Cattle and Horses Are Their Chief
Victims, Which They Prefer to HUI
man Reings-Their chisel-Iike Teeth
and Peculiar Interior Anatomy.
Half dozen of us had been telling
what we thought we knew about
bloodsucking bats, but our conversa-
tion had developed only an astonish-
ing amount of misinformation and ir-
reconcilable differences. So we called
In the doctor VINO nad lived some
years In Brazil and asked him to comb
out our tangled ideas.
"I'm not surprised at your confu-
sion," be began, 'for at one time or
another I have believed above every
thing your questions would suggest.
When / was schoolboy the vampire
was a bat as large as crow, had a
horn on his nose and was described as
sitting on his victims feet, tanning
him with bis wings while he worked
his pumping apparatus. There is such
bat, but when it was proved that it
was fruit eater many of us doubted
the whole bat legend along with the
old mythology. There Is bloodsucking
vampire, however-millions of them.
"The old Spanish conquistadors
found proof Of its existence in sore
great toes, which looked as II the skin
had been delicately shaved off. just
deep enough to ooze blood, but they
never caught one and naturally laid
the blame to the biggest ones they
found, which are nearly all vegetari.
ans. The real thing is small reddish
brown creature closely resembling bats
Of the same color caught here not In
frequently.
"The naturalist finds, however, some
surprising differences. They have no
teeth for any purpose save for thin
ming the skin - not enough for the
blood to flow freely, but just sufficient
to enable them to draw 1t by suction.
The wound rarely bleeds after they
leave 1t. This preparation is done with
a pair of chisel-like teeth, sharp as a
knife. Their interior anatomy differs
from other animals as well as their
teeth. All the other animals, so far as
/ know, have stomach and necessary
organs for converting food into blood.
The true vampire has only an elon-
gated sacklike intestine for the storage
of the blood taken, which requires no
digestion till 1t IL taken up into the
circulatory system. With neither teeth
nor stomach, 1t has no alternative. 1t
must find nourishment ready made.
''This popularity may or may not
account for one very strange thing
about Its selection of victims. Cattle
and horses are the chief ones. Not
one human being In a hundred entire
" satisfies their taste. Not half the
people who live among them all their
lives are ever bitten. But II one of a
family, for instance. just suits them
they'll follow that person to any part
of the house, and no matter how care
fully he may be covered or screened
they will find their particular tipple.
"The stories Of their bleeding people
almost to death are true only partly.
have known Of one boy who was so
persistently followed that. while the
loss of blood was small from single
attack, after months of the drain he
was greatly reduced in vitality. He
was always bitten in the same place
the end Of the great toe--and 1t be-
came SO lacerated that there was con-
siderable subsequent hemorrhage. This
lad was the youngest Of four broth
ers. They all slept in the same room
and sometimes changed beds, but none
OF the others was ever bitten.
"Cattle and horses are attacked al
ways at spot on the spine just back
of the shoulders, where the hair sep
arates In a starlike spot. This in the
case of horse is just where the FROM
end of the saddle comes, and the at
tack therefore makes vast deal Of
trouble where every one rides horse
back. A majority Of the Brazilian
horses and nearly all the cows are bit
ten by these plaques.
"Fortunately the pests are mostl!
cOnuNeu 10 tue 1OkCot S0uhsaS.
give comparatively little trouble In cit
les and villages. though the construc
tion of houses makes 1t impossible Z
keep them out. In cities tiles are ex
clusively used for roofs and In tn
country palm leaf thatching, and q
kinds of bats come and go at pleasur'
One rarely goes to sleep without fror
one 10 a dozen flying about the room
They are nearly all harmless and az
welcome because they catch insect
They all look so much alike that on
does not know which to attack.
SLOW the genuine vampires elude
scientific research so long Is my
terry. The species was not positivel
identified until the visit Of Darwin
the Beagle. 1t was in the seventies,
think, ana there is not at the presel
day, SO far as can learn, a sing
well authenticated case recorded
tho natural histories OF true var
pire being captured while feeding
a human beingn-Dewey Austin Cot
in New York Tribune.
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