Queries and Answers. 379 



Whittington, near Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, May 22. 1836. [In 



IV. 433. is an account of a blackbird, in a wild state, being 

 observed to crow like the domestic cock. In VIII. 572. is 

 an account of an instance of a similar case : in this account, 

 " Lindsiltown " should be " Lindsietown." In V. 427. is 

 an account of a wild blackcap heard singing so like the night- 

 ingale as to be at first taken for it. Notices of the mocking 

 powers of the sedge bird (Curruca salicaria Fleming) are in 



V. 653, 654.; VIL 486, 487.] 



Art. XIV. Queries and Answers. 



The Great Bat (Vespertilio Noctula Turt., V. altivolans 

 White). — Has a female of this species ever been seen by any 

 of your correspondents? as the existence of the kind, as a 

 distinct species, seems doubtful [unless the occurrence of both 

 sexes of it be known]. I have lately, at different times, had 

 five specimens, all males, perfectly agreeing with Gilbert 

 White's description, who seems to doubt whether those he 

 saw " may not be the male part of the more known species." 

 [Letter 46.) The history of British Cheir6ptera appears in- 

 volved in obscurity, owing, doubtless, in part, to their scarcity, 

 and the difficulty of procuring them ; from which it is to be 

 hoped it will soon arise by the exertions of naturalists of the 

 present day. — T. Franklin, jun. Walsall, May 21. 1836. 



[Perhaps our correspondent has not seen the account of the 

 British species of bat in Jenyns's Manual of British Vertebrate 

 Animals. In our VIII. 570. is a notice by O. of his observing 

 an individual of the V. altivolans White, between Parndon and 

 Harlow Mills, apparently in Essex.] 



To what Properties of Nature is it owi?ig, that the Stones in 

 Buildings, formed originally of the frailest Materials, gradually 

 become indurated, by Exposure to the Atmosphere and Age, and 

 stand the Wear and Tear of Time and Weather every bit as well 

 as, in some Instances much better, than the hardest and most com- 

 pact Limestones and Granite? — I was particularly struck with 

 this fact the other day, while rambling over Bodjam Castle, 

 in Sussex ; one of the finest old ruins, and in the most perfect 

 state of preservation, by the way, of any in Great Britain. 

 This castle is built of sandrock, furnished by some quarries in 

 the vicinity, which is remarkably soft, shivering to pieces with 

 the blow of a hammer. The building, however, more than 

 five centuries old, has suffered but little from the ravages of 

 the weather, and appears to have been impervious to the rains 

 and frost, those powerful mechanical agents in the decom- 

 position and disintegration of rocks. The different degrees ot 



