NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 41 



I have no acquaintance, at present, among the gentlemen of the 

 navy ; but have written to a friend, who was a sea-chaplain in the 

 late war, desiring him to look into his minutes, with 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 suffi- 

 cient 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 * 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 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 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. 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 half-penny, which is about the third of an ounce avoir- 

 dupois : so that I suppose they are the smallest quadrupeds in this 

 island. A full-grown Mus medius domesticus 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 



* See " Ray's Travels," p. 466. 



C 2 



