98 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



LETTER XXXVL To T. PENNANT, ESQ. 



DEAR SIR, Sept. 1771- 



THE summer through I have seen but two of that large species 

 of bat which I call vespertilio altivolans, from its manner of feed- 

 ing 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 further 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 ^xtent of their wings they measured fourteen inches 

 and a half : and four inches and a 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 arid 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 distin- 

 guished ; their livers, kidneys, 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 some- 

 what of a peculiar structure that I did not understand perfectly ; 

 but refer it to the observation of the curious anatomist.f These 

 creatures sent forth a very rancid and offensive smell. 



* There is not much difference of size between the sexes of this hat, which is known as thi 

 V. noctula of systematists. Mr. Jesse in his delightful Gleanings mentions that vast numbers of 

 these animals were lately found under the roof of an old building in Richmond Park. " 1 had 

 two of them brought to me," he remarks, ' nearly similar in shape, but one very considerably 

 larger than the other, the latter probably the vespertileo altivolans, mentioned by Mr. White in his 

 Natural History of Selborne. It measured nearly fifteen inches from the tip of the wing to that 

 of the other, the larger ones were quite as numerous as the smaller species." En. 



t This is termed the f ragT". '* is found in all our bats, with the exception of the two species 

 of rhinolophus, or horse-shoe bat. ED. 



