The first few nights I was much troubled by bats. The room where
I slept had not been used for many months, and the roof was open
to the tiles and rafters. The first night I slept soundly and did
not perceive anything unusual, but on the next I was aroused
about midnight by the rushing noise made by vast hosts of bats
sweeping about the room. The air was alive with them; they had
put out the lamp, and when I relighted it the place appeared
blackened with the impish multitudes that were whirling round and
round. After I had laid about well with a stick for a few
minutes, they disappeared amongst the tiles, but when all was
still again they returned, and once more extinguished the light.
I took no further notice of them, and went to sleep. The next
night several got into my hammock; I seized them as they were
crawling over me, and dashed them against the wall. The next
morning I found a wound, evidently caused by a bat, on my hip.
This was rather unpleasant, so I set to work with the negroes,
and tried to exterminate them. I shot a great many as they hung
from the rafters, and the negroes having mounted with ladders to
the roof outside, routed out from beneath the caves many hundreds
of them, including young broods. There were altogether four
species--two belonging to the genus Dysopes, one to Phyllostoma,
and the fourth to Glossophaga. By far the greater number belonged
to the Dysopes perotis, a species having very large ears, and
measuring two feet from tip to tip of the wings. The Phyllostoma
was a small kind, of a dark-grey colour, streaked with white down
the back, and having a leaf-shaped fleshy expansion on the tip of
the nose. I was never attacked by bats except on this occasion.
The fact of their sucking the blood of persons sleeping, from
wounds which they make in the toes, is now well established; but