MLS 



INDEX. 



MON 



shows that water will act as a menstruum upon air ; cold di- 

 minishes the force of menstruums, and often promotes evapora- 

 tion, 168. 



Merlin, the smallest of the hawk or falcon-kind ; scarce larger 

 than a thrush; displays a degree of courage rendering him formida- 

 ble to birds far above his size ; kills a partridge or a quail at a sin- 

 gle pounce from above, 483. 



Metals, the richest in their native state, much less glittering and 

 splendid than useless marcasitus ; the basest ores are generally the 

 most beautiral to the eye ; description of one by Mr. Condamine, 

 22; those trades that deal in their preparations, always unwhole- 

 some, 59 ; all pieces swallowed by animals lose part of their weight , 

 and often the extremities of their figure, 463. 



Meteors, between the tropics, and near the poles, assume dread- 

 ful and various appearances. 110; in those countries where the sun 

 exerts the greatest force in raising vapours, there are the greatest 

 quantity ot meteors, ib. ; one of a verv uncommon kind, seen by 

 Ulloa, at Quito, 1 12. 



Method, the principal help in natural history ; without it. little 

 progress made in this scienco ; the most applauded of classing ani- 

 mals ; the author's method of classing them ; that of describing all 

 things by words alone, a fault that has infected most of our diction- 

 aries, and bodies of arts and sciences ; Mr. Locke has observed, 

 that a drawing of an animal taken from life, is the best method of 

 advancing natural history, 19!) to 20:2. 



Mew, said of stags when they cast their heads, 262. 

 Mice, have burrowed in the backs of hugs, while fattening in the 

 sty, without being felt, 281 ; in 1580, at Hallontide, an army of 

 mice over-run the marshes near Southminster, and eat up the grass 

 to the roots ; but soon after they were all devoured by a number of 

 strange-painted owls ; the like happened again in Essex about sixty 

 years afterwards, 491. 



Mica, the least and most beautiful monkey of the sagoin kind, 412. 

 Microscope increases the magnitude of an object, and that of its 

 motion also, 124; the pupil and humours of the eye of the mole dis- 

 covered by it, 371. 



Migrating fishes. See Fishes, 653. 



Migration, causes of migration of birds ; in what manner they per- 

 form them ; at what times ; rather follow the weather than country, 

 and go on as they perceive the atmosphere more suitable to their 

 wants and dispositions ; some birds by migrating make an habita- 

 tion of every part of the earth ; migration of some swallows, and 

 retreat of others into old walls, to avoid the rigour of winter, wrap 

 this subject in great obscurity, 456, 457 ; of bees several signs pre- 

 vious to it, 803. 



Milk, infants have it in their own breasts. 137 ; sometimes found 

 in the breasts of men, as well as in those of women, 147 ; in car- 

 nivorous animals more sparing than in others, 212 ; of goats medi- 

 cinal, and not apt to curdle upon the sttimach as that of the cow, 

 246 ; of the rein-deer thinner than that of the cow, but sweeter 

 and more nourishing. 274 ; boiled up with wood-sorrel, by the Lap- 

 landers, kept in casks under ground, to be eaten in winter, 276 ; in- 

 jected into a vein, kills with more certainty than the venom of a 

 viper, 734. 



Millepedes multiplied by being cut in pieces, 125. 

 Milo, an instance of his strength, when stood upright, 151. 

 Milton makes Satan personate the cormorant, a most nauseous 

 bird, 275. 



Minerals, mere inactive and insensible bodies, 119. 

 Miners first become paralytic, then die consumptive, for the 

 trifling reward of seven-pence a day, 23 ; peculiar contrivance for to 

 supply light for their operations, 24. 



Minis, the deepest that at Cotteberg in Hungary, not more than 

 three thousand feet deep, 15 ; a coal-mine of the North of England said 

 to be eleven hundred yards deep, 22 ; air different in them, pro- 

 portionablv as th<> magazines of fire lay nearer the centre ; other 

 causes of this difference; Mendip lead-mines in Somersetshire; 

 their dfMcription, ib.; mines of coal generally less noxious than 

 th<>se of tin ; tin than those of copper ; but none are so dreadfully 

 destructive as those of quicksilver ; deplorable infirmities of work- 

 in, n .'i llie ininei near the village of Idra, 23 ; metallic, often de- 

 utrovs all vegetal' n by their volatile corrosive fumes ; salt mines 

 naturally cold, '> : natives of countries abounding in mines too 

 often experience the n-ixn..!!' effects of their vicinity, 95 ; in a lead- 

 ruin" in Flintsl'irf wen- f'< U-K' two grinding teeth and part of the 

 tusk of an elepnunt, at forty two .-irds depth. 424. 



JHingrtHu.t s among the sixth variety of the human species, de- 

 cri!ic<!. \1''. 



Mirt-driim, the Viltrnt, described. .'07. See Bittern. 



Mtftlitue. u piiint. thought propagated by seeds voided by birds, 



657. 



Mississippi, a great river in North America ; its source and 

 length, t>3. 



Miflu continually rise upon the approach of the winter months 

 undrr the line, 1111 ; called frost smoke ; raises blisters on the body, 

 in tlie regions round ihe poles. I 13. 



.Mil.t:-Jftij, not found in Lapland, 276. 



Mia in i . a. river in America ; enormous skeletons lately discovered 

 near it. 425. 



Mark-bird, description of the American mock-bird ; its habits ; 

 run assume the tone of every animal in the wood, from the wolf to 

 the raven. .Tin. 



Meck-nau, meteors, and other phenomena, in the northern re- 

 gions, 110. 



.Mococa, first of the maki-kind, which is the last of the monkeys; 

 its description ; a native of Madagascar ; its qualities, 412, 413 ; eats 

 its iiwn tail, 44(1. 



ModeniL, a city in Italy ; its remarkable wells ; other rarities round 

 it, 83. . 



Movld. black, or garden-earth, the first layer on the surface of 

 the globe ; is formed from animal and vegetable bodies decayed ; 

 soil tortile in proportion to the quantity that putrified mould bears 

 to the gravelly mixture ; and as the former predominates, so far is 

 the vegetation upon it more luxuriant, 15. 



Mule, a ruminating insect, or seemingly so. 232 ; no quadruped 

 fatter, none with a more sleek, glossy skin ; an utter stranger in 

 Ireland ; formed to live under the earth ; its description ; the an- 

 cients, and some moderns, of opinion that the rnole 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 ; peculiar advan- 

 tage 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 ani- 

 mals stronger and swifter than itself; their greatest calamity is an 

 inundation, which whenever it happens destroys great numbers of 

 them ; description of the mole-hill in which the female has brought 

 forth her young ; is scarcely found, except in cultivated countries ; 

 the varieties are but few; that of Virginia is black, mixed with a 

 deep purple ; that of Poland is white ; Agricola says, he saw hats 

 made of mole-skins, the finest and most beautiful imaginable, 370 

 to 372. 



Molossian breed of dogs, and its perfections, set forth by Neme- 

 sianus, 314. 



Mintlting, annually suffered by birds ; its effects, 453; artificially 

 accelerated, and how ; the manner in which nature performs the 

 operation, ih. ; moulting season, from the end of summer to the 

 middle of autumn, ib. 



Molucca Islands, Ferdinand Magellan slain upon one of them, 

 191. 



Mniin. the cejihus of the ancients, a monkey of the ancient con- 

 tinent, 411. 



Monax, name given to the marmout in Canada, 358. 



Mangoz, one of the maki kind, the last of the monkeys ; its de- 

 scription, 413. 



Monkey, they sometimes fall a prey to the lion in deserts and 

 forests, 2115 ; one general description will not serve for all animals 

 of the monkey kind, 398 ; La Condamine asserts that it would take 

 up a volume to describe the difference of monkeys found along the 

 river of Amazons ; and we are sure that every one of these is dif- 

 ferent from those on the African coast ; there is scarcely a country 

 in the tropical climates that does not swarm with them, and scarcely 

 a forest that is not inhabited by a race distinct from all others ; those 

 of two cantons never found to mix ; of all kinds less than the baboon, 

 have less power of doing mischief, and their ferocity diminishes with 

 their size ; in their native woods, are the pests of other animals, 

 and the masters of the forest where they reside; the tiger, nor the 

 lion, will not venture to dispute dominion with creatures, who from 

 the tops of trees with impunity carry on an offensive war, and by 

 their agility escape all pursuit ; birds have not less to fear from 

 their continual depredations; such being their petulant delight in 

 mischief, that they fling the eggs against the ground when wanting 

 appetite to devour them ; one only animal in the forest ventures to 

 oppose them ; that is the serpent ; large snakes often wind up the 

 trees, where they reside, and happening to surprise them sleeping, 

 swallow them whole, before they can make a defence ; they gene- 

 rally inhabit the tops of trees, and the snakes cling to the branches 

 near the bottom ; in this manner they are near each other, like ene- 

 mies in the same field of battle ; some suppose their vicinity rather 

 argued mutual friendship; Father Labat has seen them playing 



