NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 
LETTER XXXVI. To T. PENNANT, Eb^. 
DEAR SIR, Sept. l77l» 
The summer through I have seen but two of that large species 
of bat which I call vespertilio altivolans, from its manner of feed- 
ing 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 like\yise, 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 further 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 muscular ; and their whole bodies fleshy 
and plump. Nothing 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 quahty could not be distin- 
guished ; their livers, kidneys, and hearts, v/ere large, and their 
bowels covered with fat. They weighed each, when entire, full 
one ounce and one drachm. Within the ear there was some- 
what of a peculiar structure that I did not understand perfectly ; 
but refer it to the observation of the curious anatomist.-? These 
creatures sent forth a very rancid and offensive smell. 
* There is not much difference of size between the sexes of this bat, which is known as the 
V.noctula of systeraatists. Mr. Jesse in his delightful Gleanings mentions that vast nimihers of 
these animals were lately found under the roof of an old building in Richmond Park. *' I had 
two of them brought to me," he remarks, "nearly similar in shape, but one very considerably 
larger than the other, the latter probably the vespertileo altivolans, mentioned by Mr. White in his 
Natural History of Selborne. It measured nearly fifteen inches from the tip of the wing to that 
of the other, the larger ones were quite as numerous as the smaller species." — En. 
•J This is termed the tragus. It is found in all our bats, with the exception of the tWit species 
of rhinolophus, or horse-shoe bat.— Ed. 
