Royal Society. 349 
fqueaking noife, leaping up as high as a man's knee, defending 
their line as long as they can ; and if at laft they are forced out 
of u, they fet up a cry refembling 'Biahb^ Siabh'^ they never 
come into any houfe, nor meddle with any thing that is food 
for man j if a hoale happen to be in their way, there they 
ftop till they die, but thro' a (lack of corn they will eat their 
way j when they march thro* a meadow, they endamage it 
much by eating the roots of the grafs, but if they encamp there 
by day, they quite fpoil it, and make it look as if it were 
burnt, or ftrewed with afhesj the roots of the grafs, with 
rotten wood, and the inle(5ts in it, are their chief, if not only 
food^ thefe creatures are very fruitful, yet their breeding does 
not hinder their march, for fome of them have been obferved 
to carry a young one in their mouth, and another on their 
back. 
It is reported that fome poor Laplanders have eat feveral of 
them, and have found their fleih tart: like fquirrels^ dogs and 
cats eat only the heads, and birds of prey eat only the heart ; 
during the winter they lie under the fnow, where they have 
breathing-holes a-top, as hares and other animals 5 the country 
people are very fond of thefe guefls, as they foretel that there 
will follow a great plenty of game 5 as of fowls, fquirrcls, lo- 
cats, foxes, ^c. thele mice are the fame with thofe called 
Mures, Norvegici^ Nor'way mice, defer ibed by Olaus Wormius 
in his Mufddum. 
Plants in Jamaica, hy 1)r. Hans Sloane. Phil. Tranf. 
N° 251. p. 113. 
IN Jarnaic£i^ the neighbouring iflands, and on the continent 
of America^ there grow feveral forts of mifeltoe, by fome 
they are called parafitical plants and by others EpidendrUy as 
growing on the trunks or arms of trees, after the manner of 
mifTeltoe and like it fend roots, leaves, ftalks, flowers and 
feedj from this refemblance the Doctor gives the name of 
Vifcum to the feveral families of them. 
There is one family he calls Vifcum Cariophyloides^ from 
having irs feed veflel fomewhat like that of clove -jelly flower, 
and a particular one of that family he calls Vifcum Cariophy- 
hides maximum with a flower which has three leaves of a pale- 
clay colour and a feed full of fibres, that is commonly called 
in that ifl.ind wild pine, the deicription of which is as follows 5 
a great many brown Flbrillde cncompafs the arms, or take a 
firm hold qf the bark in the trunk of the trees whereon they 
grow 5 
