I forgot -to mention that I once faw, in Chrijl Church college
quadrangle in Oxford, on a very funny warm morning, a hov.fi
martin flying about, and fettling on the parapets, fo late as the
twentieth of November..
A t prefent I know only two fpecies of bats, the Common
vefpertilio murinus and the vefpertilio auribus.
I was much entertained laft fummer' with a tame bat which
would take flies out of a perfon’s hand. If you gave it any thing
to eat, it brought it’s wings round before the mouth, hovering
and hiding it’s head in the manner o f birds of prey when they
feed. The adroitnefs it fliewed in Ihearing off the wings of the
flies, which were always rejedted, was worthy of obfervation, and
pleafed me much.- Infefts deemed to be mod acceptable, though
It did not refufe raw flefli when offered : fo that the notion, that
bats go down chimnies and gnaw men’s bacon, feems no
improbable ftory. While 1 amufed myfelf with this wonderful
quadruped, I faw it feveral times confute the vulgar opinion,
that bats, when down on a flat furface cannot get on the wing
again, by rifing with great eafe from the floor. It ran, I
obferved, with more difpatch than I was aware of; but in a molt
ridiculous and grotefqtie manner. '
Bats drink on the wing, like fwallows, by lipping the furface^
as they play over pools and ftreams. They love to frequent
waters, not only for the fake of drinking, but on account of in-
fefts, which are found over them in the greatelt plenty. As I was
going-, foroe years ago, pretty late, in a boat from Richmond to
Srnbury, on a warm fummer’s evening, I think I law myriads, of
bats between the two placés : the air fwarmed with them all along
the Thames, fo that hundreds, were in fight at a time.
I am, &c.
L E T T E R XII.
TO TH E SAME-.
_ T „ . o 1 , November 4-, 1767.
I t gave me no finall -fatisfaftion to hear that the falcos turned out
an uncommon one. I muff confefs I Ihould have been better
pleafed to have heard that I had Lent you a bird that you had
never feen before; but that, I find, would be a difficult talk.
1 have procured fiome of the mice mentioned in my former
letters, a -young one and a female with young, both of which I
have preferved in brandy. From the colour, Ihape,^ fize, and
manner of netting, I make no doubt k tt that- the fpecies is non-
defcript. They are much fmaller, and moré flender, than the mus
domefiicus medius of Ray; and have more of the fquirrel or dor-
moufe colour: their belly is white; a ftraight line along their
fides divides the Ihades of their back and'belly. They never
enter into houfes; are carried into ricks and barns with the
Iheaves ; abound in harveft; and build their'nefts a-midft the
ftraws of the corn above the ground, and fometimes in thiftles.
They breed as many as eight at a litter, in a little round nett: compofed
ofthe blades o f grafs or wheat. _ ■
One of thefe nefts I procured this autumn, moft artificially
platted, and compofed of the blades of wheat; perfectly round,
and about the fize of a cricket-ball; with the aperture fo mge-
nioully clofed, that there’ was no difcovering-to what part it
3 This hawk proved to be the falco firegrinui; a variety.
p belonged.