Quadrupeds. 4247 



recovery. I know little of the different species of bats, but from its 

 diminutive size, and extremely long ears, should imagine it to be the 

 Vespertilio auritus of Gilbert White. 



Now, if the hypothesis be deemed absurd that the bat had been 

 immured in the vault since 1748, how then are we to account for its 

 presence there ? For although I am aware that a bat, and especially 

 one of the smallest species, would creep through a very small chink 

 or crevice, yet the evidence of my own senses, after a very close 

 examination, convinces me that not even the smallest crack existed 

 between the bricks of the vault: and I think the evidence no less con- 

 clusive that the vault has remained untouched for a great number of 

 years. Again, notwithstanding the disbelief of some, it is very gene- 

 rally acknowledged that toads do occasionally exist in blocks of stone 

 and in timber ; and the material in which they are inclosed, having 

 gradually formed around them, they must necessarily have been en- 

 tombed, in some well-authenticated cases, for a very long period of 

 time. Why then, I ask, should we deny that to be possible with the 

 bat, which we so readily concede to be an occurrence by no means 

 unusual with the toad ? I own, that taking all these things into ac- 

 count, and rinding no other possible solution for the mystery, I came 

 to the conclusion, after mature deliberation, that the bat had been 

 entombed in the vault since it last was opened in the year 1748. That 

 impression has increased upon longer reflection, and has been further 

 strengthened almost into certainty, from the perusal of a very inte- 

 resting and very similar case, recorded by the Rev. P. G. Bartlett in 

 an early volume of the 'Zoologist,' (Zool. 613). That gentleman 

 states, that on opening a vault which had been closed for twenty-one 

 years, a bat was discovered in a torpid state ; that he himself made a 

 very careful search about the vault, and was unable to discover any 

 crack through which the smallest bat could have crept ; that the vault 

 was surrounded with brick-work ; the entrance was bricked up, and 

 over the steps was placed a close-fitting slab; and that he could come 

 to no other conclusion than that the bat had been inclosed there for 

 twenty-one years. I confess that I quite agree in opinion with Mr. 

 Bartlett, and believe that the bat discovered in the vault in Bishops- 

 bourne church, crept in on the occasion of its last opening ; and so, 

 in like manner with the one found in my own church : for although 

 there is unquestionably a vast difference between twenty-one and a 

 hundred and six years, yet if we can establish the fact of a bat re- 

 maining torpid for the shorter period, I find no difficulty in under- 

 standing that a sleep which could endure so long as that did, might 



