The red book of animal stories/Bats and Vampires

BATS AND VAMPIRES

It would be difficult to find any collection of Ghost stories which did not contain one or two tales of Vampires—horrid creatures that steal out of their graves at night to suck the blood of human beings. They make one’s flesh creep to read about, but of course they are not alive, and never were.

Now, among the great bat tribe there are most likely several kinds who really do what the stories tell of the Vampires. Indeed, there is one species of big bat, with wings two feet wide, and a horny, prickly tongue, which is known to people who study natural history as the Spectre Vampire. Poor bat, it suffers, as is not uncommon, for the faults of others, for in reality it cares nothing for human blood and has never sucked anybody.

Still, even if we cannot believe all the blood-curdling stories told by travellers in South America and some of the Pacific Islands, as to the proceedings of the Vampire bat, they are very interesting to read, and are true to a great extent about others of the tribe. It is not everybody, fortunately for themselves, that could be sucked by a bat, and no doubt the creatures soon find this out, and fly off to a more promising victim. A curious account is given of their ways by a certain Captain Stedman, who spent five years on the north coast of South America, a long while ago, and he declares that he himself had fallen a prey to their bloodthirsty appetite. According to Captain Stedman, when a bat intends to suck you, he flutters slowly to the ground, and stands by your feet, fanning his wings slowly all the while, to keep you cool and comfortable, and to prevent your waking. Then he

The Vampire Bat

bites a tiny little hole in your toe, not bigger than a pin’s head, and from this he sucks till he can suck no more, sometimes after his meal he finds himself too heavy to fly; and sometimes when the morning dawns the sleeping victim is found to be dead.

Cattle, says Captain Stedman, these blood-suckers prefer to attack in the ear, and the best remedy for the wounds is to plaster on the ashes of tobacco.

The common bat which we see darting about in summer evenings, so rapidly that it is difficult to be sure anything has passed at all, goes to sleep all through the winter. In this state it needs no food, but lies in some dark place, hanging head downwards by one of its feet. When the warm weather begins and insects are heard humming round, the bat wakes up too, and flies after them. For though bats will sometimes eat other things, insects are what they like best. Many of them are full of intelligence, and can easily be tamed. They will attach themselves to their masters, rub their heads against them, and even lick their hands. But in general they are not welcome guests inside houses, and are certainly very disturbing to have in one’s room at night.

Most bats are of a dark colour, but strange stories are told of their being found of a brilliant scarlet. In each of these cases that have been noted the animal had chosen an odd place for its winter sleep, for it was found inside a tree which was perfectly smooth all round it, and there was nothing whatever to show how the bat came there. One of the trees was a wild cherry, in a wood on the Haining Estate in the county of Selkirk, and was cut down by a woodman, who was felling trees for fences, in the year 1821. The other tree was a pear, cut down near Kelsall five years later, but in both trees the place where the bat was hanging was just large enough to hold him, without much room to spare. Neither bat seemed in the least put out at his rough awakening, but spread its wings and sailed gaily away in search of its breakfast.