56 NATURAL HISTORY 



The house-martins have eggs still, and 

 squab-young. The last swift I observed 

 was about the twenty-first of August ; it 

 was a straggler. 



Red-starts, JIi/- catchers, ivhite -throats, 

 and reguli non cristati, still appear ; but 

 I have seen no black-caps lately. 



I forgot to mention that I once saw, in 

 Christ Church college quadrangle in 

 Oxford, on a very sunny warm morning, 

 a house-martin flying about, and settling 

 on the parapet, so late as the twentieth 

 oi November, 



At present I know only two species of 

 bats, the common vespertilio murijius and 

 the vespertilio auribus, 



I was much entertained last Summer 

 with a tame bat, which would take flies 

 out of a person^s hand. If you gave it 

 any thing to eat, it brought its wings 

 round before the mouth, hovering and 

 hiding its head in the manner of birds of 

 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 m€ 



