rattlemouse

English

Noun

rattlemouse (plural rattlemice)

1. (obsolete) A bat (the animal).
   • 1588, George Puttenham, The Arte of English Poesie:

     the tale of the Rattlemouſe who in the warres proclaimed betweene - the foure footed beaſts , and the birdes, beyng ſent for by Lyon to be at his muſters, excuſed himself for that he was a foule and flew with winges : and beyng ſent for by the Eagle to serue him, sayd that he was a foure footed beaſt […]

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “rattlemouse”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)