destroyed the large cattle which the missionaries had brought thither, and which had begun to multiply."

The roussette and rougette are larger, stronger, and perhaps yet more mischievous than the spectre; but it is by open force, and in the day as well as in the night, that they commit hostilities. Fowls and small animals are the objects of their destructive fury; they even attack men, and bite their faces most cruelly.

All these bats are animals carnivorous, voracious, and possessed of an appetite for every thing that offers. In a dearth of flesh or fish, they feed on vegetables and fruits of every kind. As they are fond of the juice of the palm tree, so it is easy to take them by placing in the neighborhood of their retreat a few vessels filled with palm tree water, or any other fermented liquor, with which they intoxicate themselves. They fasten to, and suspend themselves from trees, with their claws. They are usually seen in troops, and more so by night than by day; places which are much frequented they shun; and their favorite residence is in the deserted parts of islands.

I have frequently thought it worth while to examine how it is possible that these animals should suck the blood of a person asleep, without causing, at the same time, a pain so sensible as to awake him. Where they cut the flesh with their teeth or with their claws, the pain of the bite would effectually rouse any of the human species, however soundly asleep. With their tongue only, then, it is possible for them to make such minute apertures in the skin, as to imbibe the blood through them, and to open the veins without causing an acute pain,

The tongue of the spectre I have not had an opportunity to observe; but that of several roussettes, which Mr Daubenton has attentively examined, seems to indicate the possibility of the fact. It is sharp, and full of prickles directed backward; and it appears that these prickles, or points, from their exceeding minuteness, may be insinuated into the pores of the skin, may

enlarge them, and may penetrate them so deep, as to command a flow of blood by the continual suction of the tongue. But we can only conjecture upon a fact of which all the circumstances are imperfectly known to us, and of which some are perhaps exaggerated, or erroneously related, by the writers who have transmitted them to us.

Captain Stedman, while sleeping in the open air in Surinam, was attacked by one of the spectre bats. On awaking, about four o'clock in the morning, he was extremely alarmed to find himself weltering in congealed blood, and without feeling any pain. Having started up, he ran to the surgeon with a firebrand in his hand, and all over besmeared with gore. The cause of his alarm was, however, soon explained. After he had applied some tobacco ashes to the wound, and had washed the gore from himself and his hammock, he examined the place where he had lain, and observed several small heaps of congealed blood upon the ground; on examining which, the surgeon judged that he had lost at least twelve or fourteen ounces. Captain Stedman says, that these animals, knowing by instinct that the person they intend to attack is in a sound slumber, they generally alight near the feet; where, while the creature continues fanning with his enormous wings, which keeps the person cool, he bites a piece out of the tip of the great toe, so very small that the head of a pin could scarcely be received into the wound, which is consequently not painful. Yet, through this orifice, he sucks the blood until he is obliged to disgorge. He then begins again, and thus continues sucking and disgorging till he is scarcely able to fly; and the sufferer has often been known to sleep from time into eternity. The spectre bat generally bites in the ear, but always in places where the blood will flow spontaneously.

The following extract is from Waterton : "We will now take a view of the vampire. As there was a free entrance and exit to the vampire in the loft, where I slept, I had a fine opportunity of paying attention to this nocturnal surgeon. He does not always live on blood. When the moon shone bright, and the fruit of the banana tree was ripe, I could see him approach and eat it. He would also bring into the loft from the forest, a green round fruit, about the size of a nutmeg. There was something also in the blossom of the sawarri nut-tree that was grateful to him; for on coming up Waratilla creek in a moonlight night, I saw several vampires fluttering round the sawarri tree, and every now and then the blossoms, which they had broken off, fell into the water. So I concluded that the vampires pulled them from the tree, either to get at the incipient fruit, or to catch the insects which often take up their abode in flowers.

"The vampire, in general, measures about twenty-six inches from wing to wing extended, though I killed one which measured thirty-two inches. He frequents old houses and hollow trees; and sometimes a cluster of them may be seen in the forest, hanging head downwards from the branch of a

tree.

"The vampire has a curious membrane, which rises from the nose, and gives it a singular appearance. There are two species of vampire in Guiana, a larger and a smaller. The larger sucks men and other animals; the smaller seems to confine himself chiefly to birds. I learnt from a gentleman high up on the river Demerara, that he was completely unsuccessful with his fowls on account of the small vampire. He showed me some that had been sucked the night before, and they were scarcely able to walk.

"Some years ago, I went to the river Paumaron with a Scotch gentleman, by name Tarbet. We hung our hammocks in the thatched loft of a planter's house. Next morning, I heard this gentleman muttering in his hammock, and now and then letting fall an imprecation, just about the time he ought to have been saying his morning prayers. 'What is the matter, Sir,' said I softly; 'is any thing amiss?' 'What's the matter?' answered he sullenly; 'why the vampires have been sucking me to death.' As soon as there was light enough, I went to his hammock, and saw that it was much stained with blood. There,' said he, thrusting his foot out of the hammock, 'see how these infernal imps have been drawing my life's blood! On examining his foot, I found the vampire had tapped his great toe: there was a wound somewhat less than that made by a leech; the blood was still oozing from it I conjectured he might have lost from ten to twelve ounces of blood. Whilst examining it, I think I put him in a worse humor by remarking, that an European surgeon would not have been so generous as to have blooded him without making a charge. He looked up in my face, but did not say a word; and I saw he was of opinion that I had better have spared this piece of ill-timed levity."

Of American bats there are five kinds noticed by Godman, viz: the Carolina, hoary, cuneated, subulate, and New York bats.

ORDER FOURTH-FERE.

THIS order embraces animals with four extremities proper for walking; three kinds of teeth: mammæ abdominal, varying in number, stomach simple, membranous, intestines short.

FAMILY I.-INSECTIVORE.

THESE have the feet flat, armed with stout nails; those of the hind feet always with five toes, having their sole entirely bearing upon the ground; fore feet generally with five toes; molar teeth crowned with pointed tubercles; canines sometimes very long, sometimes very short; incisors variable in number; body covered with hair or prickles.

THE HEDGEHOG.1

THIS animal varies in length from six to ten inches; and has the power of defending itself from an enemy without combating him, and of annoying without attacking him. Possessed of little strength, and of no agility by which it might escape its foes, it has received from nature a prickly armor, with a faculty of rolling itself up into a ball, and of presenting from every part of its body a poignant weapon of defence. Even from its fear this animal obtains another engine of security; the smell of its urine, which, when attacked, it generally sheds, being sufficient to disgust its enemy with the contest, and to keep him at a distance. Thus, the generality of dogs are content with barking at the hedgehog, when it falls in their way, without discovering any inclination to seize it. Of these, however, there are some, which, like the fox, have had the address to master it, though of the marten, the polecat, the ferret, the weasel, or any of the birds of prey, it has no dread.

When at large in the country, they are generally found in woods, under the trunks of old trees, as also in the clefts of rocks. It is not probable that they climb up trees, as some naturalists have affirmed, or that they make use of their prickles to carry off the fruit; it is with their mouth they seize it. They always remain at the foot, in some hollow space, or under moss. They remain in a state of inactivity all day; they only venture abroad by night, and seldom approach human habitations. They sleep during the winter; and therefore every thing that has been said of their laying up provisions for that season, must be false. They at no time eat much, and can subsist very long without any food whatever. Hedgehogs are occasionally eaten, and their flesh is said to be delicate food; their skin is not now converted to any use, though the ancients used it for the purpose of a clothes brush.

The hedgehog may be rendered domestic, and in that state is very useful in destroying cockroaches and beetles, which he pursues and devours with great activity. He is believed also to destroy mice, nearly if not quite as well as a cat. A hedgehog belonging to the proprietor of an inn at Felton, in Northumberland, Eng., was taught to perform perfectly the duty of a turnspit dog. It ran familiarly round the house, and was very obedient.

"In the month of June, 1782," says a correspondent in the Gentleman's Magazine, "a full grown hedgehog was put into a small yard, in which was a border of shrubs and annuals. In the course of a few days he formed, beneath a small holly tree, a hole in the earth sufficiently large to receive

1 Erinaceus Europeus, LIN. The genus Erinaceus has six upper and six lower incisors; two upper and two lower canines; ten upper and eight lower molars; intermediate upper incisors separate, cylindrical; canines smaller than the molars; body thick, covered with prickles above and stiff hairs below, capable of rolling up into a ball; muzzle pointed; ears medium size, or very short and rounded; toes armed with strong nails; tail short or none; ten mammæ, six pectoral, and four ventral; no cœcum; clavicles complete.

his body. After a while a small shed was built for him in the corner of the yard, and filled with straw; but the animal would not quit its former situation until it was covered with a stone. He then took possession of the shed, and every morning carried leaves from a distant part of the border, to stop its mouth. His principal food was raw meat and mice. Of the latter, he would eat six at a time, but never more; and although these were thrown to him dead, he bit them all in the neck before he began to eat any. He would also eat snails with their shells; but would leave any thing for milk, which he lapped exceedingly slow. To this, even if set six or eight yards distant from his shed, he would almost always come out half an hour before his usual time. If the person who usually fed him neglected to do so, he would follow him along the yard; and if the door was open he would go into the house. If meat was put near the mouth of his shed in the day time, he would sometimes pull it in and eat it. As the weather became colder, he carried more leaves into his shed; and sometimes he would not come out for two or three days successively. About the end of November he died; from want of food, as was supposed, but most probably from the severity of the weather."

THE SHREW MOUSE1

Is smaller than the domestic mouse: it has a strong smell, which is peculiar to itself, and so offensive to cats, that, though they will cheerfully chase and kill the shrew mouse, yet they will not eat its flesh, like that of the domestic mouse. It is evidently this noisome odor, this aversion of the cat to it, that gave rise to the notion, that the shrew mouse is a venomous animal, and that its bite is so dangerous to cattle of all sorts, and particularly to horses. The truth, however, is, that it is neither venomous nor capable of biting; for it cannot open its mouth sufficiently wide to seize the double thickness of the skin, which is absolutely necessary, in order to bite. The distemper among horses, it is farther to be observed, which the vulgar attribute to the tooth of the shrew mouse, is a swelling which proceeds from an internal cause, and has no connection with any bite, or rather scratch, that this little animal may give.

In winter, especially, the shrew mouse generally fixes its residence in some hay-loft, stable, or barn, where it feeds on grain, insects, and putrified

1 Sorex araneus, Lin. The genus Sorex has two upper and two lower incisors; six or eight upper and four lower spurious canines, or lateral incisors; eight upper and six lower, true molars; upper middle incisors hooked and dentated at base; molars crowned with points; head much elongated; nose prolonged and moveable; ears short, rounded; eyes small, but perceptible; tail more or less long, often angular; feet with weak toes, separated, furnished with crooked nails; teats six or eight; sebaceous glands on the sides.