38 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. [LETT. XII. 
tlie corn above the ground, and sometimes in thistles. They 
breed as many as eight at a litter, in a little round nest, com- 
posed of the blades of grass or wheat. 
One of these nests 1 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 in- 
geniously closed, that there was no discovering to what part it 
belonged. It was so compact and well filled, that it would roll 
across the table without being discomposed, 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 increasing 
in bulk. This wonderful procreant cradle, 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 be- 
lieved would puzzle me. I called to see it this summer, not 
knowing what to expect: but the moment I took it in hand, I 
pronounced it the male Garrulus Bohemims, or German silk-tail, 
from the five peculiar crimson tags or points which it carries at 
the ends of five of the short remiges. It cannot, I suppose, with 
any propriety be called an English bird : and yet I see, by Eay's 
" Philosophical Letters," that great flocks of them appeared in 
this kingdom in the winter of 1685, feeding on haws. 
The mention of haws puts me in mind that there is a total 
failure of that wild fruit, so conducive to the support of many of 
the winged nation. For the same severe weather, late in the 
spring, which cut off all the ])roduce of the more tender and 
curious trees, destroyed also that of the more hardy and common. 
Some birds, haunting with the missel-thrushes, and feeding 
on the berries of the yew-tree, which answered to the description 
of the Merula torqiiata, or ring-ouzel, were lately seen in this 
neighbourhood. I employed some people to procure me a speci- 
men, but without success. 
