OF SELBORNE 81 



LETTER XXXVI 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE 



Sept. 1771. 

 DEAR SIR, 



THE summer through I have seen but two of that large 

 species of bat which I call vespertilio altivolam, from its 

 manner of feeding high in the air : I procured one of 

 them, and found it to be a male ; and made no doubt, as 

 they accompanied together, that the other was a female : 

 but, happening in an evening or two to procure the other 

 likewise, I was somewhat disappointed, when it appeared 

 to be also of the same sex. This circumstance, and the 

 great scarcity of this sort, at least in these parts, occasions 

 some suspicions in my mind whether it is really a species, 

 or whether it may not be the male part of the more known 

 species, one of which may supply many females; as is known 

 to be the case in sheep, and some other quadrupeds. But 

 this doubt can only be cleared by a farther examination, 

 and some attention to the sex, of more specimens : all 

 that I know at present is, that my two were amply 

 furnished with the parts of generation much resembling 

 those of a boar. 



In the extent of their wings they measured fourteen 

 inches and an half: and four inches and an half from the 

 nose to the tip of the tail : their heads were large, their 

 nostrils bilobated, their shoulders broad and muscular; 

 and their whole bodies fleshy and plump. Nothing could 

 be more sleek and soft than their fur, which was of a 

 bright chestnut colour ; their maws were full of food, but 

 so macerated that the quality could not be distinguished ; 

 their livers, kidnies, and hearts, were large, and their 

 bowels covered with fat. They weighed each, when 

 entire, full one ounce and one drachm. Within the ear 

 there was somewhat of a peculiar structure that I did not 

 understand perfectly; but refer it to the observation of 



