38 MICE. 



tween the two places ; the air swarmed with them 

 all along the Thames, so that hundreds were in 

 sight at a time. 



XII. 



IT gave me no small satisfaction to hear that 

 thefalco 1 turned out an uncommon one. I must 

 confess I should have heen better pleased to have 

 heard that I had sent you a hird that you had 

 never seen before ; but that, I find, would be a 

 difficult task. 



I have procured some of the mice mentioned 

 in my former letters, a young one, and a female 

 with young, both of which I have preserved in 

 brandy. From the colour, shape, size, and manner 

 of nesting, I make no doubt but that the species is 

 nondescript. They are much smaller, and more 

 slender, than the mus domesticus medius of Ray, 

 and have more of the squirrel or dormouse colour. 

 Their belly is white ; a straight line along their 

 sides divides the shades of their back and belly. 

 They never enter into houses ; are carried into 

 ricks and barns with the sheaves ; abound in har- 

 vest ; and build their nests amidst the straws of 

 the corn above the ground, and sometimes in 

 thistles. They breed as many as eight at a litter, 

 in a little round nest composed of the blades of 

 grass or wheat. 



One of these nests I procured this autumn, 

 most artificially platted, and composed of the 

 blades of wheat; perfectly round, and about the 

 size of a cricket-ball ; with the aperture so inge- 



1 This hawk proved to be the falco peregrinus a va- 

 riety. 



