38 WATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE.

great toe, so very small, indeed, that the head of a pin could
scarcely be received into the wound, which is consequently
net painful; yet through this orifice he continues to suck the
blood until he is obliged to disgorge. Cattle they generally
bite in the ear, but always in places where the blood flows
spontaneously.”
Megaderma The Vampire Bat of South America has long
iyra. been credited with sanguinivorous habits, and
until recently was supposed to be the only bat having such
propensities. Mr. Edward Blyth has, however, shown that
the Megaderma Lyra of Asia will sometimes prey upon the
smaller species of bat with which it comes in contact. Mr.
Blyth, one evening, observed a rather large bat of this species
enter an outhouse, whereupon he procured a light, closed
the door to prevent escape and then proceeded to catch
the intruder. In the chase the bat dropped what Mr. Blyth
at first took to be a young one, but which proved to be
a small Vespertilio Bat, “feeble from loss of blood, which
it was evident the Megaderma had been sucking from a
large, and still bleeding, wound under and behind the ear.”
As the Megaderma had not alighted while in the outhouse,
Mr. Blyth concluded “that it sucked the vital current from
its victim as it flew, having probably seized it on the wing,
and that it was seeking a quiet nook where it might devour
the body at leisure.” Having caught the Megaderma Mr.
Blyth kept both specimens until the next day, and having
examined each separately put them both into a cage, where-
upon the Megaderma attacked the smaller bat “with the
ferocity of a tiger”; finding it impossible to escape the cage
“it hung by the hind legs to one side of its prison, and afte:
sucking the victim till no more blood was left commenced
devouring it, and soon left nothing but the head and some
portions of the limbs.” “The voidings observed shortly
afterwards in its cage,” says Mr. Blyth, “resembled clotted
blood, which will explain the statement of Steadman and