BATS RAIN" LIZARDS. 85 



It would not be at all strange if your bat, which you have 

 procured, should prove a new one, since five species have 

 been found in a neighbouring kingdom. The great sort 

 that I mentioned is certainly a nondescript : I saw but one 

 this summer, and that I had no opportunity of taking. 



Your account of the Indian grass was entertaining. I am 

 no angler myself; but inquiring of those that are, what 

 they supposed that part of their tackle to be made of, they 

 replied, " of the intestines of a silkworm." 



Though I must not pretend to great skill in entomology, 

 yet I cannot say that I am ignorant of that kind of know- 

 ledge : I may now and then perhaps be able to furnish you 

 with a little information. 



The vast rain ceased with us much about the same time 

 as with you, and since we have had delicate weather. 

 Mr. Barker, who has measured the rain for more than thirty 

 years, says, in a late letter, that more rain has fallen this 

 year than in any he ever attended to ; though, from July, 

 1763, to January, 1764, more fell than in any seven months 

 of this year. 



LETTEE XXIII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, Feb. 28, 1769. 



DEAR SIR, It is not improbable that the Guernsey lizard 

 and our green lizards may be specifically the same ; all 

 that I know is, that when, some years ago, many Guernsey 

 lizards were turned loose in Pembroke college garden, 

 in the university of Oxford, they lived a great while, 

 and seemed to enjoy themselves very well ; but never bred. 

 Whether this circumstance will prove anything either way, 

 I shall not pretend to say. 



I return you thanks for your account of Cressy-hall ; but 



do so. This is much to be regretted ; for it is one of our most interesting 

 birds of passage, and its arrival is hailed with pleasure by those who watch 

 its curious habits and instincts. ED. 



