El Salvador field notes, v4501
Page 257
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Puerto del Triunfo, Dept., Usulutan Dec., 28, 1925 - Jan., 25, 1926 Desmodus Vampire Bat- On the morning of January 14, 1926 while running my trapline along one of the small jungle streams about one mile east of the village of Puerto del Triunfo I varied from my regular path to watch for an agouti when I located a large tree which [illegible] hollow at the bottom. The cavity in this tree was probably two feet in diameter while the external opening was perhaps two and one half feet wide at the ground with both sides tapering to a point about four feet above. The trunk [torn off] approximately four feet in diameter trended from a slight angle at a height of about twenty feet to direct heavenward. The cavity was damp and the fine pieces of wood [illegible] and wood dust within were soggy and sheltered many cockroaches some of which were as long as my index finger. When I stooped down by the opening the familiar squeek of bats came to my ears and I could hear them restlessly shifting their positions. I held my shot pistol in the cavity and fired twice. One bat came tumbling down and three others flew out but soon swung up under the leaves of the dense chlot palms where I brought down one after the other. Three