570 The large Bat, Habits of the Hedgehog. 



been noticed (VII. 557. and 564*.), I can add a more recent in- 

 stance differing only in the kind of tree. A neighbour having 

 a child slightly ruptured, the poor little fellow was taken from 

 his warm bed on the morning of the 1st of May last, sufficiently 

 early to be carried to a wood, at a considerable distance, where 

 a young oak was prepared, through which he was passed na- 

 ked, three times, as the clock struck four : it was essential 

 that each time the ruptured place should touch the split part 

 of the tree; and on no other day or hour could the mummery 

 be performed with any beneficial effect. If we lament that 

 such a folly should be perpetrated, how should we blush to ac- 

 knowledge that the mother of the child was — a Swiss peasant 

 [VI. 510.]? No ! An Englishwoman of family and educa- 

 tion ! ! ! — P. J. Brown. Thun, Canton of Berne, Switzerland, 

 June 22. 1835. 



Mammiferous Animals. — The large Bat (Vespertilio alti- 

 volans White, V. Noctula of Tur ton's British Fauna). — Mr. 

 White had the merit of being the first discoverer of this bat. 

 He alludes to it twice in his History of Selborne, and speaks of 

 its being rare in his neighbourhood. In a foot note in Letter 28., 

 to Pennant, he observes, — " I have never seen the large bat till 

 the end of April, nor after July." From its arriving and depart- 

 ing about the same periods of the year with the swift (Hiriindo 

 ^ v pus), he thought, particularly as they both hawked high in 

 the air for food, that their habits and food were the same. 

 On the evening of Aug. 22. 1834, as I was returning from a 

 fishing excursion in Essex, we observed this bat, in the mea- 

 dows between Parndon and Harlow Mills, hawking for its 

 prey over the river (the Stort). We, at first, took it, from 

 its large size, for the brown owl ; but, on its nearer approach, 

 we distinctly detected, from the flit of its wings, that it was a 

 bat. It was flying at the height of about 40 ft. or 50 ft. from 

 the ground; and, as it passed and repassed, we had ample 

 opportunity of observing it. The period of the year was 

 later by some weeks than that stated by Mr. White for its de- 

 parture, and some days after the usual time of the retreat of the 

 swift. Mr. White, to the last, clung to his favourite opinion 

 of hybernation (hiding) ; and he liked the idea of associating 

 the habits of the swift and bat, from the known fact of the 

 hiding and winter torpidity of the latter. — O. Clapton, 

 Feb. 1835. [See in p. 513. of the last Number.] 



The Hedgehog's Habits, (p. 107. 110.) — Our hedgehogs 

 (p. 109.) continue to live without food; and they hiss, or 

 rather blow, at us, when we open the lid of the basket which 

 contains them. — J. D., sen. Waterbeach, near Cambridge, 

 Jan. 22. 1835. 



