sheer nonsense. What difference to the vampire, whether its victim be a
biped or quadruped? Is it fear of the former that would prevent it from
attacking him? Perhaps it may never have seen a human being before:
besides, it attacks its victim while asleep, and is rarely ever caught
or punished in the act. Where these creatures are much hunted or
persecuted by man, they may learn to fear him, and their original habits
may become changed, but that is quite another thing. As nature has
formed them, the blood-sucking bats will make their attack
indifferently, either upon man or large quadrupeds. There are a
thousand proofs to be had in all the tropical regions of America. Every
year animals are killed by the _phyllostoma hastatum_, not in hundreds,
but in thousands. It is recorded that on one extensive cattle-farm
several hundred head were killed in the short period of six months by
the bats; and the vaqueros, who received a bounty upon every bat they
should capture, in one year succeeded in destroying the enormous number
of _seven thousand_! Indeed, "bat-hunting" is followed by some as a
profession, so eager are the owners of the cattle-farms to get rid of
these pests.

Many tribes of Indians and travellers suffer great annoyance from the
vampire-bats. Some persons never go to sleep without covering
themselves with blankets, although the heat be ever so oppressive. Any
part left naked will be attacked by the phyllostoma, but they seem to
have a preference for the tip of the great toe--perhaps because they
have found that part more habitually exposed. Sometimes one sleeper is
"cupped" by them, while another will not be molested; and this, I may
observe, is true also of the mosquitoes. There may be some difference
as to the state of the blood of two individuals, that leads to this
fastidious preference. Some are far more subject to their attack than
others--so much so that they require to adopt every precaution to save
themselves from being bled to death. Cayenne pepper rubbed over the
skin is used to keep them off, and also to cure the wound they have
made; but even this sometimes proves ineffective.

Of course there are many species of bats in South America besides the
vampire; in fact, there is no class of mammalia more numerous in genera
and species, and no part of the world where greater numbers are found
than in the tropical regions of America. Some are insect-eaters, while
others live entirely on vege