28 



NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



MILLER S THUMB AND STICKLE-BACK. 



capitatus), the trout (truttafluviatilis), the eel (anguilla), the lampern 

 (lampcetra parva et fluviatilis], and the stickle-back (piscicidus 

 aculeatus). 



We are twenty miles from the sea, and almost as many from a great 



river, and therefore 

 see but little of sea 

 birds. As to wild 

 fowls, we have a few 

 teems of ducks bred 

 in the moors where 



the snipes breed; 



^^j^Slf^^m^ifK^K^^''.. and multitudes of 



widgeons and teals 

 in hard weather fre- 

 quent our lakes in 

 the forest. 



Having some ac- 

 quaintance with a 

 tame brown owl, I 

 find that it casts up 

 the fur of mice, and the feathers of birds in pellets, after the manner 

 of hawks ; when full, like a dog, it hides what it cannot eat. 



The young of the barn-owl are not easily raised, as they want a 

 constant supply of fresh mice ; whereas the young of the brown owl 

 will eat indiscriminately all that is brought ; snails, rats, kittens, 

 puppies, magpies, and any kind of carrion or offal. 



The house-martins have eggs still, and squab young. The last 

 swift I observed was about the 21st of August : it was a straggler. 



Red-stars, fly-catchers, white-throats, and reguli non cristati, still 

 appear : but I have seen no black-caps lately. 



I forgot to mention that I once saw, in Christ Church College quad- 

 rangle in Oxford, on a very sunny warm morning, a house-martin flying 

 about, and settling on the parapet, so late as the 20th of November. 



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

 murinus and the vespertilio auribus* 



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 



* It is to be desired that the fishes mentioned in a previous paragraph, as well 

 as the bats were identified. There are at least three British species of eels, 

 and it is more than probable that two of these are found at Selborne. There 

 are also several species of stickle-back found in our fresh waters, one of the 

 most common, and to which Ray's name as applied belongs, is the smooth-tailed 

 stickle-back, gasterosteus leiurus, Cuvier. Of the bats Professor Bell describes 

 seventeen British species. The first noted by White was most probably the 

 pipistrelle. The true vespertilio murinus being one of the most rare. The other 

 would be the common long -eared bat, plecotus auritus. 



