O F S E L B O R N E. 39 
Some young man, pofleffed of fortune, health, and leifure, 
fhould make an autumnal voyage into that kingdom; and fliould 
fpend a year there, inveftlgating the natural hiliory of that vaft 
country. Mx. IVillughby ''' paffcd through that kingdom on fuch 
an errand; but he feems to have Ikirted along in a fuperficial 
manner and an ill humour, being much difgufted at the rude 
diffolute manners of the people. 
I have no friend left now at Sunhury to apply to about the 
fwallows roofting on the aits of the Thames : nor can I hear any 
more about thofe birds which I fufpefted were merula torquat^. 
As to the fmall mice, I have farther to remark, that though 
they hang their nefts for breeding up amidft the ftraws of the 
ftanding corn, above the ground; yet I find that, in the winter, 
they burrow deep in the earth, and make warm beds of grafs: 
but their grand rendezvous feems to be in corn-ricks, into which 
they are carried at harveft. A neighbour houfed an oat- rick 
lately, under the thatch of which were aflembled near an hundred, 
mod of which were taken ; and fome 1 faw. I meafured them; 
and found that, from nofe to tail, they were juft two inches and a 
quarter, and their tails juft two inches long. Two of them, 
in a fcale, weighed down juft one copper halfpenny, which is 
about the third of an ounce avoirdupois : fo that I fuppofe they 
are the fmalleft quadrupeds in this ifland. A full-grown mics 
n:edlus domejlictts weighs, I find, one ounce lumping weight, 
which is more than fix times as much as the moufe above ; and 
meafures from nofe to rump four inches and a quarter, and the 
fame in it's tail. We have had a very fevere froft and deep fnow 
this month. My thermometer was one day fourteen degrees and 
" See Kajs Travels, p. 46C. 
aa 
