The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1910-03-17
B%L0ODSUCK|NG 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 Beings-Their ChiseI- like Teeth
and Peculiar Interior Anatomy.
Half u dozen of us had been telling
what we thought we knew about
bloodsucking bats, but our conversa-
ton bad developed only an astonish-
ing amount of misinformation and ir-
reconcilnble differences. So we called
in the doctor who had lived some
years in Brazil and asked him to comb
out our tangled ideas.
I'm not surprised at ycur confu-
sion.' be began, for at one time "
another have believed above every
thing your questions would suggest.
When was a %schoolboy the vampire
was a bat as large as a crow. had a
horn on his nose and was described as
sitting on his victims &eet. flaming
him with his wings while he worked
his pumping apparatus. There is such
a bat. but when it was proved that it
was q fruit eater many of us doubted
II "uSiC bol iCSShu diOuS VIII lIS
old mythology. There is a bloodsucking
vampire. however-millions of them.
THE old Spanish conquistadors
found proof OF it's existence in sore
great toes. which looked as it the skin
had been delicately shaved off. just
deep enough TO ooze blood, but they
never caught one and naturally laid
tho hl1 Ipn IN tho hirract nvnc fhax
found. which are nearly all vegetari.
ans. The real thing is u small reddish
brown creature closely resembling bats
of the same color caught here not in
frequently.
1.-THE naturalist finds. however, some
surprising differences. They have no
teeth for any purpose save for thin
ming the skin : lot enough for the
blood to flow freely. but just sufficient
to enable them to draw it by suction.
The wound rarely bleeds after they
leave it. This preparation is done with
a pair OF chisel-like teeth. sharp as a
knife. Their interior anatomy differs
from other animals as we'll as their
teeth. All the other animals. so far as
! know, have a 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 it is taken up into the
circulatory system. With neither teeth
nor stomach. it 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
u human being in a hundred entire
~ satisfies their taste. Not half the
people who live among them all their
lives are ever bitten. But if one of a
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 lipple.
The stories of their bleeding people
almost 20 death are true only parity.
l have known of one boy Who was so
persistpntly followed that. while the
loss of blood WAS small from Il 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 it be
came so lacerated that there was on
siderable subsequent hemorrhage. This
lad was the youngest Of four broth.