28 
liATUEAL HISTOEY OF SELBOENE 
capitatus), the trout {trutta fluviatilis), the eel {anguilla), the lampern 
{lampcetra parva et fluviatilis), and the stickle-back {pisciculus 
aculeatiLs). 
We are twenty miles from the sea, and almost as many from a great 
river, and therefore 
see but little of sea 
birds. As to wild 
fowls, we have a few 
teems of ducks bred 
in the moors where 
the snipes breed ; 
and multitudes of 
widgeons and teals 
in hard weather fre- 
quent our lakes in 
the forest. 
Having some ac- 
quaintance with a 
tame brown owl, I 
find that it casts up 
the fur of mice, and the feathers of birds in pellets, after the manner 
of hawks ; when full, like a dog, it hides what it cannot eat. 
The young of the barn-owl are not easily raised, as they want a 
constant supply of fresh mice ; whereas the young of the brown owl 
will eat indiscriminately all that is brought ; snails, rats, kittens, 
puppies, magpies, and any kind of carrion or offal. 
The house-martins have eggs still, and squab young. The last 
swift I observed was about the 21st of August : it was a straggler. 
Red-stars, fly-catchers, white-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 quad- 
rangle in Oxford, on a very sunny warm morning, a house-martin flying 
about, and settling on the parapet, so late as the 20th of i^^ovember. 
At present I know only two species of bats, the common vespertilio 
murinus and the vespertilio aurihus* 
I was much entertained last summer with a tame bat, which would 
take flies out of a person's hand. If you gave it anything 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 ofi* the wings of the flies, which were always 
rejected, was worthy of observation, and pleased me much. Insects 
* It is to be desired that the fishes mentioned in a previous paragraph, as well 
as the bats were identified. There are at least three British species of eels, 
and it is more than probable that two of these are found at Selborne. There 
are also several species of stickle-back found in our fresh waters, one of the 
most common, and to which Ray's name as applied belongs, is the smooth-tailed 
stickle-back, gasterosteus leiurus, Cuvier. Of the bats Professor Bell describes 
seventeen British species. The first noted by White was most probably the 
pipistrelle. The true vespertilio murinus being one of the most rare. The other 
would be the common long-eared bat, plecotus auritus. 
miller's thumb and stickle-back. 
