THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. . 67 
with us, but also in Andalusia, where they also begin to retire 
about the beginning of August. 
The great large bat* (which by-the-by is at present a non- 
_descript in England, and what I have never been able yet to 
procure) retires or migrates very early in the summer; it also 
ranges very high for its food, feeding in a different region of 
the air; and that is the reason I never could procure one. 
Now this is exactly the case with the swifts; for they take 
their food in a more exalted region than the other species, and 
are very seldom seen hawking for flies near the ground, or over 
the surface of the water. From hence I would conclude that 
these irundines and the larger bats are supported by some 
sorts of high-flying gnats, scarabs, or pha/ene, that are of short 
continuance; and that the short stay of these strangers is 
regulated by the defect of their food. 
By my journal it appears that curlews clamored on to Octo- 
ber 31st; since which I have not seen nor heard any. Swallows 
were observed on to November 3rd. 
LETTER XXVII. 
SELBORNE, Fed. 22nd, 1770. 
Hedgehogs abound in my gardens and fields. The manner 
in which they eat the roots of the plantain in my grass-walks 
is very curious; with their upper mandible, which is much 
longer than their lower, they bore under the plant, and so eat 
the root off upwards, leaving the leaves untouched. In this 
respect they are serviceable, as they destroy a very trouble- 
some weed ; but they deface the walks in some measure by 
digging little round holes. It appears that beetles are no in- 
1 The little bat appears almost every month in the year, but I have 
never seen the large one till the end of April, nor after July. They are 
most common in June, but never very plentiful. — W. 
