BATS. t O 



It would not be at all strange if your bat, 

 which you have procured, should prove a new 

 one, since five species have been found in a 

 neighbouring kingdom. The great sort that I 

 mentioned is certainly a nondescript : I saw but 

 one this summer, and that I had no opportunity 

 of taking. 



Your account of the Indian grass was enter- 

 taining. I am no angler myself; but inquiring 

 of those that are, what they supposed that part 

 of their tackle to be made of, they replied, " of 

 the intestines of a silkworm." 



Though I must not pretend to great skill in 

 entomology, yet I cannot say that I am ignorant 

 of that kind of knowledge ; I may now and then 

 perhaps be able to furnish you with a little infor- 

 mation. 



The vast rain ceased with us much about the 

 same time as with you, and since, we have had 

 delicate weather. Mr. Barker, who has measured 

 the rain for more than thirty years, says in a late 

 letter, that more rain has fallen this year than in 

 any he ever attended to ; though, from July, 1763, 

 to January, 1764, more fell than in any seven 

 months of this year. 



or more males meet, their whip-poor-will altercations be- 

 come much more rapid and incessant, as if each were strain- 

 ing to overpower or silence the other. When near, you 

 often hear an introductory cluck between the notes. At 

 these times, as well as almost at all others, they fly low, 

 not more than a few feet from the surface, skimming about 

 the house, and before the door, alighting on the wood- 

 pile, or settling on the roof. Towards midnight they gene- 

 rally become silent, unless in clear moonlight, when they are 

 heard with little intermission till morning." W. J. 



