INDEX. 317 



the village of Idra, 68. Metallic, often destroy all vegeta- 

 tion by their volatile corrosive fumes: salt mines naturally 

 cold, 74. Natives of countries abounding in mines, too 

 often experience the noxious effects of their vicinity, 278. 

 In a lead mine in Flintshire were found two grinding teeth, 

 and part of the tusk of an elephant, at forty-two yards 

 depth, iii. 356. 



Mingrelians, among the sixth variety of the human species, 

 described, ii. 88. 



Mint, cats excessively fond of the cat-mint, ii. 393. 



Mire-drum, the bittern, described, iv. 322. See Bittern. 



Mistletoe, a plant thought propagated by seeds voided by 

 birds, iv. 256. 



Mists, continually rise upon approach of the winter months, 

 under the line, i. 321. Called frost-smoke: raises blisters 

 on several parts of the body, in the regions round the poles, 

 328. 



Miume, a river in America : enormous skeletons lately dis- 

 covered near it, iii. 356. 



Mock-bird, description of the American mock-bird: its habits: 

 can assume the tone of every animal in the wood, from the 

 wolf to the raven : no bird in the forest it has not at times 

 deceived by mimicking its call, iv. 263. 



Mock-suns, meteors, and other phenomena in the northern 

 regions, i. 321. 



Mococo, first of the maki kind, which is the last of the mon- 

 keys : its description : a native of Madagascar : its qualities, 

 iii. 321. Eats its own tail, and seems to feel no pain : some 

 other monkeys do the same, 379. 



Mould, black, or garden earth, the first layer on the surface 

 of the globe : is formed from animal and vegetable bodies 

 decayed : soil fertile, in proportion to the quantity that 

 putrefied mould bears to the gravelly mixture, i. 4-8. 



Mole, no quadruped fatter, none with a more sleek, glossy 

 skin : an utter stranger in Ireland : formed to live under 

 the earth : its description : the ancients, and some moderns, 

 of opinion that the male was blind, but Derham, by a 

 microscope, discovered all the parts of the eye known in 

 other animals : a mole let loose in the midst of a field, like 

 a ghost on a theatre, instantly sinks into the earth, and an 

 active labourer, with a spade, pursues it in vain : peculiar 

 advantage of the smallness of its eyes : when once buried 

 in the earth, it seldom stirs out : it chooses the looser, softer 

 grounds : chiefly preys upon worms and insects : is most 

 active, and casts up most earth immediately before rain, 

 and in winter before a thaw : in dry weather, it seldom 

 forms hillocks : readily evades the pursuit of animals strong- 

 er and swifter than itself: its greatest calamity is an inun- 

 dation : in some places considered by the farmer as his 



