46 BATS MICE. 



times confute the vulgar opinion, that bats, when 

 down on a flat surface, cannot get on the wing again, 

 by rising with great ease from the floor. It ran, I 

 observed, with more dispatch than I was aware of ; 

 but in a most ridiculous and grotesque manner. 



Bats drink on the wing, like swallows, by sipping 

 the surface, as they play over pools and streams. 

 They love to frequent waters, not only for the sake 

 of drinking, but on account of insects, which are 

 found over them in the greatest plenty. As I was 

 going some years ago, pretty late, in a boat from 

 Richmond to Sunbury, on a warm summer's even- 

 ing, I think I saw myriads of bats between the two 

 places ; the air swarmed with them all along the 

 Thames, so that hundreds were in sight at a time. 



LETTER XII. 



TO THE SAME. 



November 4, 1767. 

 SIR, 



IT gave me no small satisfaction to hear that 

 the falco* turned out an uncommon one. I must 

 confess I should have been better pleased to have 

 heard that I had sent you a bird that you had never 

 seen before ; but that, I find, would be a difficult 

 task. 



I have procured some of the mice mentioned in 

 my former letters, a young one, and a female with 

 young, both of which I have preserved in brandy. 

 From the colour, shape, size, and manner of nesting, 

 I make no doubt but that the species is nondescript. 

 They are much smaller, and more slender, than the 



* This hawk proved to be the falco peregrinus a variety. 



