68 



NATURAL HISTORIT 



season may find insects sufficient to stip=* 

 port them there. 



Some young man, possessed of fortune^ 

 health, and leisure, should make an au- 

 tumnal 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 Sunhury 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 torquatce. 



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: 



* See Travels, p. 466. 



