36 WHITE 



frequently coming on board his ship all the way from our Chan- 

 nel 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 man, 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 l passed through that king- 

 dom on such an errand; but he seems to have skirted along 

 in a superficial manner and an ill-humor, 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 Merulce 

 torquatcz. 



As to the small mice, I have farther 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 neighbor housed an oat- 

 rick lately, under the thatch of which were assembled nearly 

 a hundred, most of which were taken, and some I saw. I 

 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 medius domes ticus weighs, I find, one ounce 

 lumping weight, which is more than six times as much as the 

 mouse above ; and measures 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 half below the freezing- 

 point, within doors. The tender evergreens were injured pretty 

 much. It was very providential that the air was still, and the 

 ground well covered with snow, else vegetation in general 



