y distinguished by being slightly swollen and
bloody.

Waterton describes the mode in which the vampire-bat makes the orifice
through which to suck its victim's blood. It does so by pressing gently
the point of its sharp projecting teeth, noiselessly circling round, and
making them act the part of a centre-bit,--performing the operation so
quietly that no pain is felt. He says, however, that at times they
commit a good deal of mischief. A young Indian boy suffered greatly by
being frequently attacked; and the son of an English gentleman was
bitten so severely on the forehead, that the wound bled freely on the
following morning. The fowls also suffered so terribly that they died
fast; and an unfortunate jackass on whom they had set their fancy was
almost killed by inches.

The vampire rises in the air by means of a wide flattened membrane
connecting the whole of the limbs and tail, the thumb of the fore-paws
and the hind-feet alone being left free. This membrane, though
wonderfully delicate, is furnished with minute blood-vessels. It also
possesses a system of nerves of the most exquisite power of sensation,
which enables it to fly rapidly among the boughs and foliage, avoiding
all impediments even in the darkest hours of night. The vampire can run
along the ground and climb trees by means of the sharp hooks on the
fore-paws. They sleep, however, like ordinary bats, hanging by their
hind-feet--being thus able at a moment's notice to take to flight.

Of the other species, some have the fur of a blackish colour, some of a
ruddy hue.

When flying, the larger ones wheel heavily round and round, somewhat in
the manner of a pigeon, so that they may easily be mistaken for birds.
Although they live largely on insects, they also greedily devour fruits;
indeed, some species live chiefly on them. Bates opened the stomach of
several, and found them to contain a mass of pulp and seeds of fruit,
mingled with a few remains of night insects. On comparing the seeds
taken from their stomachs with those of cultivated trees, he found that
they were unlike any of them: he concludes, therefore, that they resort
to the forest to feed, coming only to human habitations in the morning
to sleep, where they find themselves more secure from animals of prey
than in their natural abodes in the woods.

PART THREE, CHAPTER TWELVE.

QUADRUMANA.

MONKEYS.

The American monkeys consist of two chief families,--the Cebidae, and
the M