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
To Thomas Pennant, Esquire

November 4, 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.
(* This hawk proved to be the falco peregrinus; a variety.)

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