58 GOAT-SUCKER BATS. 



song exactly at the close of day ; so exactly, that I have known 

 it strike up more than once or twice just at the report of the 

 Portsmouth evening gun, which we can hear when the weather 

 is still. It appears to me past all doubt, that its notes are 

 formed by organic impulse, by the powers of the parts of its 

 windpipe formed for sound, just as cats pur. You will credit 

 me, I hope, when I assure you, that, as my neighbours were 

 assembled in an hermitage on the side of a steep hill where 

 we drink tea, one of these churn-owls came and settled on the 

 cross of that little straw edifice, and began to chatter, and 

 continued his note for many minutes ; and we were all struck 

 with wonder to find that the organs of that little animal, when 

 put in motion, gave a sensible vibration to the whole building ! 

 This bird also sometimes makes a small squeak, repeated four 

 or five times ; and I have observed that to happen when the 

 cock has been pursuing the hen in a toying manner through 

 the boughs of a tree. 



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 entertaining. 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 silk-worm." 



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 information. 



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.* 



* At Joyeuse, in the department of the Ardeche, during October, 1827, 

 thirty-six inches of rain in depth fell within eleven days ; and, on the 

 9th of that month, twenty-nine inches and a half fell within the space of 

 two hours. During this excessive fall of rain, the barometer remained 

 nearly stationary, at two or three lines below the mean altitude, notwith- 

 standing the continuance of the most violent thunder and lightning during 

 the whole time. ED. 



