The Natural History of Selborne 5 1 



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

 murinus and the vespertilio auribus. 1 



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

 take flies out of a person's hand. If you gave it anything to eat, 

 it brought its wings round before the mouth, hovering 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 

 were always rejected, was worthy of observation, and pleased me 

 much. Insects seemed to be most acceptable, 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 with this wonderful quadruped, I saw it 

 several times confute the vulgar opinion, that bats when down upon 

 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, 



1 It is not probable that White had seen the true Vespertilio murinus, which is 

 a very rare bat ; what he mistook for it must have been the Pipistrelle. His other 

 species was doubtless the long-eared bat, Plecotus auritus. ED. 



