XL VI.] 
OF SELBORNE. 
129 
running in general terms. But our countryman, tlie excellent 
Mr. Ray, is the only describer that conveys some precise idea 
in every term or word, maintaining his superiority over his 
followers and imitators in spite of the advantage of fresh dis- 
coveries and modern information. 
At this distance of years it is not in my power to recollect at 
what periods woodcocks used to be sluggish or alert when I was 
a sportsman : but upon my mentioning this circumstance to a 
friend, he thinks he has observed them to be remarkably listless 
against snowy foul weather : if this should be the case, then 
the inaptitude for flying arises only from an eagerness for food ; 
as sheep are observed to be very intent on grazing against storiny 
wet evenings. 
Selborne, A ug. 1, 1771. 
LETTER XLVL 
TO THOMAS PENXANT, ESQ. 
The summer through I have seen but two of that large species 
of bat which I call Vespertilio alfiiwlans, from its mauner 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 
wdien it appeared to be also of the same sex. This circumstance 
and the great scarcity of this sort, at least in these parts, occa- 
sions 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, 
K 
