76 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORXE. 



LETTEE XXXVL 



TO THE SAME. 



Sept 1771. 



DEAR SIR, The summer through I have seen but two of that large 

 species of bat which I call vespertilio cdtivolans, 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 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 extent of their wings they measured fourteen inches and an 

 half; and four inches and an 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 and soft than their fur, which was of a bright chesnut 

 colour ; their maws were full of food, but so macerated that the quality 

 could not be distinguished ; 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 somewhat 

 of a peculiar structure that I did not understand perfectly ! but refer it 

 to the observation of the curious anatomist. These creatures sent forth 

 a very rancid and offensive smell. 



LETTEE XXXVII. 



TO THE SAME. 



SELBORNE, 1771. 



DEAR SIR, On the twelfth of July I had a fair opportunity of 

 contemplating the motions of the caprimudgus, or fern-owl, as it was 

 playing round a large oak that swarmed with scarabcei solstitiales, or 

 fern-chafers. The powers of its wing were wonderful, exceeding, if 



* See Letters XXII. XXVI. The British fauna is indebted to White for the 

 first notice of this species ; it is locally distributed, and although not common 

 generally is found in numbers together, so many as 185 having been taken in one 

 night from the eaves of Queen's College, Cambridge. It was first described by 

 Daubenton, under the name of La noctule, which name Latinised was after- 

 wards 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. 



