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 ingeniously closed, 

 that there was no discovering to what part it be- 

 longed. It was so compact and well filled, that it 

 would roll across the table without being discom- 

 posed, though it contained eight little mice that were 

 naked and blind. As this nest was perfectly full, 

 how could the dam come at her litter respectively, 

 so as to administer a teat to each ? Perhaps she 

 opens different places for that purpose, adjusting 

 them again when the business is over ; but she could 

 not possibly be contained herself in the ball with 

 her young, which, moreover, would be daily in- 

 creasing in bulk. This wonderful procreant cra- 

 dle, and elegant instance of the efforts of instinct, 

 was found in a wheatfield, suspended in the head of 

 a thistle. 



A gentleman curious in birds wrote me word that 

 his servant had shot one last January, in that severe 

 weather, which he believed would puzzle me. I 

 called to see it this summer, not knowing what to ex- 

 pect : but the moment I took it in hand, I pronounced 

 it the male Garritliis BoJicviicus, or German silk-tail, 

 from the five peculiar crimson tags or points which 

 it carries at the ends of five of the short rcmigcs. It 

 cannot, I suppose, with any propriety be called an 

 English bird : and yet I see, by Ray's Philosophi- 



47 



