e sleeper! Its sharp white teeth were visible in
both jaws, and its small vicious eyes glistened under the light of the
fires. The red hair covering its body and large membranous wings added
to the hideousness of its aspect, and a more hideous creature could not
have been conceived. _It was the vampire_,--the blood-sucking
_phyllostoma_!

A short cry escaped from the lips of Leon. It was not a cry of pain,
but the contrary. The sight of the great bat, hideous as the creature
was, relieved him. He had all along been under the painful impression
that some venomous serpent had caused the blood to flow, and now he had
no farther fear on that score. He knew that there was no poison in the
wound inflicted by the phyllostoma--only the loss of a little blood; and
this quieted his anxieties at once. He resolved, however, to punish the
intruder; and not caring to rouse the camp by firing, he stole a little
closer, and aimed a blow with the butt of his pistol. The blow was well
aimed, and brought the bat to the ground, but its shrill screeching
awoke everybody, and in a few moments the camp was in complete
confusion. The sight of the blood on the foot of the little Leona quite
terrified Dona Isidora and the rest; but when the cause was explained,
all felt reassured and thankful that the thing was no worse. The little
foot was bound up in a rag; and although, for two or three days after,
it was not without pain, yet no bad effects came of it.

The "blood-sucking" bats do not cause death either to man, or any other
animal, by a single attack. All the blood they can draw out amounts to
only a few ounces, although after their departure, the blood continues
to run from the open wound. It is by repeating their attacks night
after night that the strength of an animal becomes exhausted, and it
dies from sheer loss of blood and consequent faintness. With animals
this is far from being a rare occurrence. Hundreds of horses and cattle
are killed every year in the South American pastures. These creatures
suffer, perhaps, without knowing from what cause, for the phyllostoma
performs its cupping operation without causing the least pain--at all
events the sleeper is very rarely awakened by it. It is easy to
understand how it sucks the blood of its victim, for its snout and the
leafy appendage around its mouth--from whence it derives the name
"phyllostoma"--are admirably adapted to that end. But how does it make
the puncture to