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NATURAL HISTORY 



LETTER XXXVI. 



TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 



Sept. 1771. 



HE summer through I have seen but two of 

 that large species of bat which I call Vesper- 

 tilio altivolans 1 , 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 a half; and four inches and a half from 

 the nose to the tip of the tail : their heads were large, 

 their nostrils bilobated, their shoulders broad and mus- 

 cular ; and their whole bodies fleshy and plump. Nothing 

 could be more sleek and soft than their fur, which was 

 of a bright chestnut colour ; their maws were full of 

 food, but so macerated that the quality could not be dis- 

 tinguished ; 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 



1 This is the noctulc bat, Vespertilio noctula, Linn. ED. 



