34 NATURAL HISTORY 
belonged. It was fo compaa and well filled, that it would roll 
acrofs the tabic without being difcompofed, though it contained 
eight little mice that were naked and blind. As this nefb was 
perfedly full, how could the dam come at her litter refpedively 
lb as to admlnifter a teat to each ? perhaps flie opens different 
places for that purpofe, adjufting them again when the bufmefs is 
over : but llie could not poffibly be contained herfelf in the ball 
with her young, which moreover would be daily increafing in 
bulk. This wonderful procreant cradle, an elegant inflance of 
the efforts of inftind, was found in a wheat-field fufpended in the 
head of a thifile. 
A gentleman, curious in birds, wrote me word that his fervant 
bad fhot one laft January, in that fevere weather, which he believed 
would puzzle me. I called to fee it this fummer, not knowing 
what to exped : but, the moment I took it in hand, I pronounced 
it the male garrv.lus bohemicus or German filk-tail, from the five 
peculiar crimfon tags or points which it carries at the ends of five 
of the fliort remiges. It cannot, I fuppofe, with any propriety, 
be called an Englijlo bird : and yet I fee, by Ray's Philofoph. Letters, 
that great flocks of them, feeding on haws, appeared in this 
kingdom in the winter of 1685. 
The mention of haws puts me in mind that there is a total 
failure of that wild fruit, fo conducive to the fupport of many of 
the winged nation. For the fame fevere weather, late in the 
fpring, which cut off all the produce of the more tender and 
curious trees, deftroyed alfo that of the more hardy and 
commort. 
Some birds, haunting with the miffel-thrufhes, and feeding 
on the berries of the yew-tree, which anfwered to the defcription 
©f the merula torquata or ring-ouzel, were lately fcen in this neigh- 
bourhood. 
