OF 8ELB0BNE. 
41 
ot proy 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 me much. Insects 
seemed to be most acceptable, though it did not refuse raw 
flesh when offered ; so that the notion, that bats go down 
chimneys and gnaw men^s bacon, seems no improbable 
story. While I amused myself with this wonderful quadru- 
ped, I saw it several times confute the vulgar opinion, that 
bats when down on a flat surface cannot get on the wing 
again, by rising with great ease from the floor. It ran, I 
observed, with more dispatch than I was aware of; but in 
a most ridiculous and grotesque manner. 
Bats drink on the wing, like swallows, by sipping the 
surface, as they play over pools and streams. They love to 
frequent waters, not only for the sake of drinking, but on 
account of insects, which are found over them in the greatest 
plenty. As I was going some years ago, pretty late, in a 
boat from Richmond to Sunbury, on a warm summer's 
evening, I think I saw myriads of bats between the two 
places : the air swarmed with them all along the Thames, 
so that hnndreds were in sight at a time. 
LETTER XII. 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUIRE. 
N'ovember 4, 1767. 
T gave me no small satisfaction to hear that 
' the Falco turned out an uncommon one.^ I 
' must confess I should have been better 
pleased to have heard that I had sent you a 
bird that you had never seen before ; but 
that, I find, would be a difficult task. 
^ This hawk proved to be the Falco peregrinus ; a variety. — G. W. 
It differed from the ordinary type in having the under parts of the 
