4246 Quadrupeds. 



tically sealed for above a hundred years : and knew not how to com- 

 bat the opinion of the workmen, that it must have been entombed 

 there alive since the year 1748. 



I now proceeded to institute inquiries regarding the vault in which 

 the bat was found. The marble monument above, recorded the names 

 of an old Wiltshire family long since extinct in these parts, and the 

 dates of the three coffins below, corroborating the statement of the 

 brass plate, that the individual last buried died A. D. 1748. Several 

 old men in the parish remembered an adjacent vault being opened, 

 when they were boys, nearly sixty years since ; but all positively de- 

 nied that the vault in question had ever been opened in their lives : 

 and one, a very old man, formerly clerk, and whose then residence 

 abutted on the church-yard, was very emphatic on this point. So that 

 I am constrained to believe that the vault has remained untouched 

 since it received its last occupant a hundred and six years ago : and 

 I am the more convinced of this from the excessive freshness of the 

 last coffin, the brass plate and nails of which were as bright, and its 

 whole appearance as new, as if it had been placed there but yesterday, 

 which would not have been the case had the external air been admit- 

 ted at any time since the vault was closed. 



During the time of the examination of the vault, the bat was held 

 in my hand, and above an hour must have elapsed since its capture 

 before 1 was enabled to take it to the Rectory, and place it under an 

 inverted glass : by this time the warmth of ray hand had considerably 

 revived it, and it wandered round its prison, snuffing about with its 

 curious nose, and standing up, and trying to hook itself on to the 

 smooth glass, which baffled all its attempts. As it obstinately refused 

 to eat small pieces of chopped meat, with which I tempted it to break 

 its fast, which may have continued a hundred and six years, and after 

 which 1 should have imagined it to be ravenous ; and as it lay on its 

 side, apparently in a dying state, humanity urged me to give it a 

 chance of life, by restoring it to liberty, and I accordingly carried it 

 to the garden, where I placed it upon the turf, and watched its move- 

 ments. At first it clung to the blades of grass, and shivered a good 

 deal; presently it fluttered along the ground; soon it rose upon wing, 

 though in an awkward manner, and although it sank several times, 

 as if about to fall to the ground, and as if it had not found the use of 

 its wings (which might have been a little stiff for want of exercise, if 

 they had been closed above a hundred years), it passed behind a clump 

 of trees, and I saw it no more : and then I began to regret, when too 

 late, that I had not made more efforts to keep it alive and watch its 



