NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 29 



the village, yield nothing but the bull's head or miller's thumb 4 

 (gobius fluviatilis capitatus), the trout (trutta fluviatilis), the 

 eel 5 (anguilld), the lampern 6 (lampcetra parva et fluviatilis), 

 and the stickle-back 7 {pisciculus aculeatus). 



We are twenty miles from the sea, and almost as many from 

 a great river, and therefore see but little of sea birds. As to 

 wild fowls, we have a few teems of ducks bred in the moors 

 where the snipes breed ; and multitudes of widgeons and teals 

 in hard weather frequent our lakes in the forest. 



Having some acquaintance with a tame brown owl, I find 

 that it casts up the fur of mice, and the feathers of birds in 

 pellets, after the manner of hawks ; when full, like a dog, it 

 hides what it cannot eat. 



The young of the barn-owl are not easily raised, as they 

 want a constant supply of fresh mice ; whereas the young of 

 the brown owl will eat indiscriminately all that is brought ; 

 snails, rats, kittens, puppies, magpies, and any kind of carrion 

 or offal. 



The house-martins have eggs still, and squab young. The 

 last swift I observed was about the 2ist August: it was a 

 straggler. 



Red-starts, fly-catchers, white-throats, and reguli non cristati, 

 still appear : but I have seen no black-caps lately. 



I forgot to mention that I once saw, in Christ Church Col- 

 lege quadrangle in Oxford, on a very sunny warm morning, a 

 house-martin flying about, and settling on the parapet, so late 

 as the 2Oth November. 



At present I know only two species of bats, the common 

 vespertilio murinus and the vespertilio auribus* 



I was much entertained last summer with a tame bat, which 

 would take flies out of a person's hand. If you gave it any- 

 thing to eat, it brought its wings round before the mouth, hov- 

 ering and hiding its head in the manner of birds of prey when 

 they feed. The adroitness it showed in shearing off the wings 

 of the flies, which are always rejected, was worthy of observa- 

 tion, and pleased me much. Insects seemed to be most ac- 

 ceptable, though it did not refuse raw flesh when offered ; so 

 that the notion, that bats go down chimneys and gnaw men's 

 bacon, seems no improbable story. While I amused myself 



