OF SELBORNE. 41 



ol 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 

 seemed to be most acceptable, though it did not refuse raw 

 flesh when offered : so that the notion, that bats go down 

 chimneys and gnaw men's bacon, seems no improbable 

 story. While I amused myself with this wonderful quadru- 

 ped, I saw it several times confute the vulgar opinion, that 

 "bats when down on a flat surface cannot get on the wing 

 again, by rising with great ease from the floor. It ran, I 

 observed, with more dispatch than I was aware of; but in 

 a most ridiculous and grotesque manner. 



Bats drink on the wing, like swallows, by sipping the 

 surface, as they play over pools and streams. They love to 

 frequent waters, not only for the sake of drinking, but on 

 account of insects, which are found over them in the greatest 

 plenty. As I was going some years ago, pretty late, in a 

 boat from Richmond to Sunbury, on a warm summer's 

 evening, I think I saw myriads of bats between the two 

 places : the air swarmed with them all along the Thames, 

 so that hundreds were in sight at a time. 



LETTER XII. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 



November 4, 1767. 



;T gave me no small satisfaction to hear that 

 the Falco turned out an uncommon one. 1 I 

 must confess I should have been better 

 pleased to have heard that I had sent you a 

 bird that you had never seen before ; but 

 that, I find, would be a difficult task. 



1 This hawk proved to be the Falco peregrinus ; a variety. G. W. 

 It differed from the ordinary type in having the under parts of the 



