th 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 off the wings of the flies, which were always rejected, was
worthy of observation, and pleased me much. Insects seemed to be most
acceptable, though it did not refuse raw flesh when offered; so that the
notion, that bats go down chimneys and gnaw men's bacon, seems no
improbable story. While I amused myself with this wonderful quadruped, I
saw it several times confute the vulgar opinion, that bats when down upon
a flat surface cannot get on the wing again, by rising with great ease
from the floor. It ran, I observed, with more despatch than I was aware
of, but in a most ridiculous and grotesque manner.

Bats drink on the wing, like swallows, by sipping the surface as they
play over pools and streams. They love to frequent waters, not only for
the sake of drinking, but on account of insects, which are found over
them in the greatest plenty. As I was going some years ago, pretty late,
in a boat from Richmond to Sunbury, on a warm summer's evening, I think I
saw myriads of bats between the two places. The air swarmed with them
all along the Thames, so that hundreds were in sight at a time.

I am, etc.

LETTER XII.

_November 4th_, 1767.

Sir,--It gave me no small satisfaction to hear that the _falco_ turned
out an uncommon one. I must confess I should have been better pleased to
have heard that I had sent you a bird that you had never seen before; but
that, I find, would be a difficult task.

I have procured some of the mice mentioned in my former letters, a young
one and a female with young, both of which I have preserved in brandy.
From the colour, shape, size, and manner of nesting, I make no doubt but
that the species is nondescript. They are much smaller, and more
slender, than the _mus domesticus medius_ of Ray, and have more of the
squirrel or dormouse colour; their belly is white, a straight line along
their sides divides the shades of their back and belly. They never enter
into houses; are carried into ricks and barns with the sheaves, abound in
harvest; and build their nests amidst the straws of the corn above the
ground, and som