41 THE NATURAL HISTORY [LETT. 



respect to birds that settled on their rigging during their voyage 

 up or down the Channel. What Hasselquist says on that subject 

 is remarkable : there were little short-winged birds frequently 

 coming on board his ship all the way from our Channel quite 

 up to the Levant, especially before squally weather. 



What you suggest with regard to Spain is highly probable. 

 The winters of Andalusia are so mild, that, in all likelihood, the 

 soft-billed birds that leave us at that season, may find insects 

 sufficient to support them there. 



Some young men, possessed of fortune, health, and leisure, 

 should make an autumnal voyage into that kingdom ; and should 

 spend a year there, investigating the natural history of that vast 

 country. Mr. Willughby passed through that kingdom on such 

 an errand ; but he seems to have skirted along in a superficial 

 manner and an ill-humour, being much disgusted at the rude 

 dissolute manners of the people. 



I have no friend left now at Sunbury to apply to about the 

 swallows roosting on the aits of the Thames : nor can I hear 

 any more about those birds which I suspected were Mcruhc 

 torquatcc. 



As to the small mice, I have further to remark, that though 

 they hang their nests for breeding up amidst the straws of the 

 standing corn, above the ground ; yet I find that, in the winter, 

 they burrow deep in the earth, and make warm beds of grass : 

 but their grand rendezvous seems to be in corn-ricks, into which 

 they are carried at harvest. A neighbour housed an oat-rick 

 lately, under the thatch of which were assembled near an hundred, 

 most of which were taken ; and some I saw. 1 measured them, 

 and found that from nose to tail, they were just two inches and 

 A quarter, and their tails just two inches long. Two of them, in 

 a scale, weighed down just one copper halfpenny, which is about 

 the third of an ounce avoirdupois : so that I suppose they are 

 the smallest quadrupeds in this island. A full grown Mus me- 

 dius domcstiais weighs, I find, one ounce lumping weight, which 

 is more than six times as much as the mouse above ; and mea- 

 sures from nose to rump four inches and a quarter, and the same 

 in its tail. We have had a very severe frost and deep snow this 

 month. My thermometer was one day fourteen degrees and a 



