LETTER XXXVI 



TO THE SAME 



Sept. [25], 1771. 



DEAR SIR, The summer through I have seen but two 

 of that large species of bat which I call vespertilio altivolans, 

 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 examina- 

 tion, 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. 1 



In the extent of their wings they measured fourteen 

 inches and an half ; and four inches and an half from the 



1 Jardine's note is as follows: "See Letters XXII, XXVI. The British 

 auna is indebted to White for the first notice of this species ; it is locally dis- 

 tributed, and although not common generally is found in numbers together, so 

 many as 185 having been taken in one night from the eaves of Queens' College, 

 Cambridge. It was first described by Daubenton, under the name of La noctule, 

 which name Latinised was afterwards continued, and is prior to White's name of 

 altivolans, which we regret has not been retained, as it is so characteristic of the 

 habits of the species." (Ed. "Selbome," p. 97.) 



