Both the roussette and rougette are in the cabinet of the King of France; and it is to the island of Bourbon that we are indebted for them. They belong exclusively to the Old Continent; and in no part either of Africa or Asia are they so numerous as the vampyre is in America. These animals are larger, stronger, and perhaps more mischievous than the vampyre. But it is by open force, and in the day as well as night, that they commit hostilities. Fowls and small birds are the objects of their destructive fury; they even attack men, and wound their faces; but no traveller has accused them of sucking the blood of men and animals while asleep. The ancients had but an imperfect knowledge of these winged quadrupeds, which may, indeed, be termed monsters; and it is probable, that from those whimsical models of Nature, they received the idea of harpies. The wings, the teeth, the claws, the cruelty, the voracity; the nastiness, and all the destructive qualities, and noxious faculties of the harpies, bear no small resemblance to those of the Ternat bat. Herodotus seems to have denoted them, when he mentions that there were large bats which greatly incommoded the men employed in collecting cassia round the marshes of Asia, and that, to shield themselves from the dangerous bites of these animals, they were obliged to cover the body and face with leather. Strabo speaks of very large bats in Mesopotamia, whose flesh was palatable. Among the moderns, these large bats have been mentioned, though in vague terms, by Albertus, Isidorus, and Scaliger. With more precision have they been treated of by Linscot, Nicholas Matthias, and Francis Pyrard; Oliger Jacobeus has given a short description of them with a figure; and lastly, in Seba, and in Edwards, we find well-executed description and figures, which correspond with our own.