OJ? SELBOllNE. 69 



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 as- 

 sembled 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 halfpenny, which is about the third 

 of an ounce avoirdupois : so that I suppose 

 they are the smallest quadrupeds in this 

 island. A full-grown musmedius domesticiis 

 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 se- 

 vere frost and deep snow this month. My 

 thermometer was one day fourteen degrees 

 and a half below the freezing point, within 

 doors. The tender evergreens were injured 

 pretty much. It was very providential that 

 Ihe air was still, and the ground well 



