NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 39 



High on the stately dome, with harp in hand, 

 Their lumpish deities exalted stand, 

 Fixed as a public mark, that all might know, 

 What wretched heavy stuff they print below." 



PIGEONS AT OXFORD. I was born and brought up at Christ 

 Church, Oxford. When my Father took us to church oil a Sunday 

 morning we always saw many pigeons at Carfax, where the four 

 cross-roads meet. There were never any pigeons at Carfax 

 except on Sunday morning none on a week-day. My father 

 made us observe why the pigeons only came of a Sunday. 

 The reason is that it is the custom of the farmers to meet at 

 Carfax on Saturday and show samples of wheat to each other. 

 The pigeons came on a Sunday ruorning to pick up the spilt 

 grains. 



BATS, p. 30. A TAME BAT FKOM BRUGES CATHEDRAL. My 

 friend, Mr. Samuel Walker, thus describes his tame bat, Piggy : 

 " During a tour in Belgium, in 1874, we ascended the high belfry 

 at Bruges, and while examining the bells my attention was drawn 

 to a bat Hying about. Alter half an hour's chase, I captured him 

 and carried him off in my handkerchief. The little creature did 

 its best to bite me, and on returning home I constructed a wire 

 cage, in which it lived (or nearly died) for nine days. On my 

 arrival in London I at once took it to Mr. Frank Buckland, who 

 was charmed with my prize, and at once prescribed warmth, 

 water, and meal-worms. Until his suggestions the little creature 

 had been left in draughts and fed with flies and meal-worms. 

 Mr. Buckland called to see it, and praised the new cage I had 

 made for it, i.e., a box a foot square, lined with green baize, 

 perforated zinc at the top, glass in the front, and a door at the 

 back. ' Piggy,' for that is the name we have given it, is now in 

 good health, eats eight meal-worms daily, besides daddy-long- 

 legs, of which he is very fond, and after he has eaten them 

 smacks his lips and yawns. It frequently opens its mouth as if 

 thirsty, and 1 immediately give it some water at the end of my 

 finger. If I give it too much it squeaks like a mouse and tries 

 to bite me. The size of the bat when asleep is not larger tlian 

 an ordinary mouse. When flying it measures about eight inches 

 from wing to wing. Inside the cage I put two small bottles 

 with warm water. After a good meal it purrs louder than a cat, 

 in comparison to its size, and if I stroke it gently it erects its 

 cars, and puts first one and then the other up to be scratched. 

 It has a coat about an eighth of an inch thick. Its habits are 

 cleanly, and its manners funny." Piggy lived about five months, 

 when he died. I cast him and painted him to life. 



