ordingly carried it to the garden, where I
placed it upon the turf, and watched its movements. At first it clung to
the blades of grass, and shivered a good deal; presently it fluttered
along the ground; soon it rose upon the wing, though in an awkward
manner, and although it sank several times, as if about to fall to the
ground, and as if it had not found the use of its wings, (which might
have been a little stiff for want of exercise, if they had been closed
above a hundred years), it passed behind a clump of trees and I saw it
no more; and then I began to regret, when too late, that I had not made
more efforts to keep it alive and watch its recovery. I know little of
the different species of Bats, but, from its diminutive size, and
extremely long ears, I should imagine it to be the _Vespertilio auritus_
of Gilbert White.

"Now, if the hypothesis be deemed absurd that the Bat had been immured
in the vault since 1748, how then are we to account for its presence
there? For although I am aware that a Bat, and especially one of the
smallest species, would creep through a very small crack or crevice, yet
the evidence of my own senses, after a very close examination, convinces
me that not even the smallest crack existed between the bricks of the
vault; and I think the evidence no less conclusive that the vault has
remained untouched for a great number of years. Again, notwithstanding
the disbelief of some, it is very generally acknowledged that Toads do
occasionally exist in blocks of stone and in timber; and the material in
which they are inclosed having gradually formed around them, they must
necessarily have been entombed, in some well-authenticated cases, for a
very long period of time. Why then, I ask, should we deny that to be
possible with the Bat, which we so readily concede to be an occurrence
by no means unusual with the Toad? I own, that, taking all these things
into account, and finding no other possible solution for the mystery, I
came to the conclusion, after mature deliberation, that the Bat had
been entombed in the vault since it last was opened in the year 1748.
That impression has increased upon longer reflection, and has been
further strengthened almost into certainty, from the perusal of a very
interesting and very similar case, recorded by the Rev. J. P. Bartlett
in an early volume of the _Zoologist_ (_Zool._, 613.)[111] That
gentleman states, that on opening a vault which had been closed for
twenty-one