64 MAMMALS

Natural History Museum there is a specimen of Des-
modus, which Darwin saw caught in the act of sucking
blood from a horse. Regarding its capture he says:
«The vampire bat is often the cause of much trouble
by biting the horses on their withers. The injury is
generally not so much owing to the loss of blood as
to the inflammation which the pressure of the saddle
afterwards produces. The whole circumstance has
lately been doubted in England; I was, therefore,
fortunate in being present when one was actually
caught on a horse’s back. We were bivouacking late
one evening near Coquimbo, in Chili, when my ser-
vant, noticing that one of the horses was very restive,
went to see what was the matter, and fancying he
could distinguish something, suddenly put his hand
on the beast’s withers, and secured the vampire. In
the morning the spot where the bite had been inflicted
was easily distinguished from being slightly swollen
and bloody.’

INSECTIVORA.—The bats are a special order
of greatly modified insectivores, one of the transition
stages being, perhaps, suggested in the Malaysian
cobegos, who have not the power of true flight, but,
like the flying squirrels and flying lizards, have an
extension of membrane, which enables them to take
exceedingly long leaps from tree to tree. Their
genus is Galeopithecus, and there are two species.
The insectivores are a very miscellaneous order.
Though similar in structure, they differ very much in
their food. Instead of living entirely on insects, as
one would suppose from their name, some of them eat