make an autumnal voyage into that kingdom; and should spend a
year there, investigating the natural history of that vast country. Mr.
Willughby * passed through that kingdom on such an errand; but
he seems to have skirted along in a superficial manner and an ill
humour, being much disgusted at the rude, dissolute manners of the
people.
(* See Ray's Travels, p. 466.)

I have no friend left now at Sunbury to apply to about the swallows
roosting on the aits of the Thames: nor can I hear any more about
those birds which I suspected were merulae torquatae,.

As to the small mice, I have farther to remark, that though they
hang their nests for breeding up amidst the straws of the standing
corn, above the ground; yet I find that, in the winter, they burrow
deep in the earth, and make warm beds of grass: 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 assembled 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 a third of an ounce avoirdupois: so that I
suppose they are the smallest quadrupeds in this island. A full-
grown mus medius domesticus 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 severe frost and deep snow this month. My