112 
NATURAL HISTOEY 
LETTER XXXYI. 
TO THOMAS PENNANT, ESQUlIi?:. 
Sept. 1771. 
HE summer through I have seen but two of 
that large species of bat which I call Vesper- 
tilio altivolans^ , from its manner 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 
Hkewise, I was somewhat disappointed, when it appeared to 
be also of the same sex. This circumstance, and the great 
scarcity of this sort, at least in these parts, occasions 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. 
In the extent of their wings they measured fourteen 
inches and a half ; and four inches and a half from 
the nose to the tip of the tail : their heads were large, 
their nostrils bilobated, their shoulders broad and mus- 
cular; and their whole bodies fleshy and plump. ]^othing 
could be more sleek and soft than their fur, which was 
of a bright chestnut colour ; their maws were full of 
food, but so macerated that the quality could not be dis- 
tinguished ; their livers, kidneys, and hearts were large, 
and their bowels covered with fat. They weighed each, 
when entire, full one ounce and one drachm. Within the 
ear there was somewhat of a peculiar structure that I did 
This is the noctule bat, Vespertilio noctula, Linn. — Ed. 
