Wagtails, both white and yellow,* are with us all the winter. Quails crowd to our southern coast, and are often killed in numbers by people that go on purpose.

Mr. Stillingfleet, in his Tracts, says, that" if the wheatear (ananthe) does not quit England, it certainly shifts places; for, about harvest, they are not to be found where there was before great plenty of them." This well accounts for the vast quantities that are caught about that time on the south downs near Lewes, † where they are esteemed a delicacy. There have been shepherds, I have been credibly informed, that have made many pounds in a season by catching them in traps. And though such multitudes are taken, I never saw (and I am well acquainted with those parts) above two or three at a time; for they are never gregarious. They may perhaps migrate in general; and, for that purpose, draw towards the coast of Sussex in autumn; but that they do not all withdraw I am sure, because I see a few stragglers in many counties, at all times of the year, especially about warrens and stone quarries.

I have no acquaintance at present among the gentlemen of the navy, but have written to a friend, who was a sea chaplain in the late war, desiring him to look into his minutes, with respect to birds that settled on their rigging during their voyage up or down the Channel. What Hasselquist says on that subject is remarkable; there were little short-winged birds frequently coming on board the ship all the way from our Channel quite up to the Levant, especially before squally weather.

What you suggest with regard to Spain is highly

Wagtails certainly perform partial migrations. I lose sight of them in my neighbourhood for weeks together. A curious fact may here be related of them. A pair of pied wagtails built their nest last summer in a vacuum under a sleeper of the Brighton railway, near the terminus at that place. Trains at all times of the day were passing close to the nest, but in this situation the young were hatched and reared. A gentleman in the neighbourhood who watched the progress of the birds in their nidification, can vouch for the truth of this anecdote.-ED.

The Lewes shepherds here informed me that the wheatear has nearly forsaken their downs. I find it in Bushy-park all the year round, where they breed in the rabbit-burrows.-ED.

Many naval men have assured me of the fact of migratory birds settling on the rigging of their ships. Indeed the circumstance may now be considered as indisputable.-ED.

probable. The winters of Andalusia are so mild, that, in all likelihood, the soft-billed birds that leave us at that season may find insects sufficient to support them there.

Some young man, possessed of fortune, health, and leisure, should 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.

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 merula torquatæ.

As to the small mice,† I have farther to remark, that

* See Ray's Travels, p. 466.

The mus messorius of Shaw is the least of British quadrupeds. Mr. White has the merit of discovering it, and has added some interesting information regarding it in his different letters. The Rev. W. Bingley, in his Memoirs of British Quadrupeds, has the following very interesting remarks, illustrating the habits of an individual for some time kept alive in his possession:-" About the middle of September, 1804, I had a female harvest-mouse given to me. It was put into a dormouse cage immediately when caught, and a few days afterwards produced eight young ones. I entertained some hope that the little animal would have nursed these and brought them up; but, having been disturbed in her removal about four miles from the country, she began to destroy them, and I took them from her. The young ones, at the time I received them (not more than two or three days old), must have been at least equal in weight to the mother. After they were removed, she became reconciled to her situation; and when there was no noise, would venture to come out of her hiding-place at the extremity of the cage, and climb about among the wires of the open part, before me. In doing this, I remarked that her tail was prehensile, and that, to render her hold the more secure, she generally coiled the extremity of it round one of the wires. The toes of all the feet were particularly long and flexile, and she could grasp the wires very firmly with any of them. She frequently rested on her hind feet, somewhat in the manner of the jerboa, for the purpose of looking about her; and, in this attitude, could extend her body at such an angle as at first greatly surprised me. She was a beautiful little animal, and her various attitudes in cleaning her face, head, and body, with her paws, were particularly graceful and elegant. For a few days after I received this mouse, I neglected to give it any water; but when I afterwards put some into the cage, she lapped it with great eagerness. After lapping, she always raised herself on her hind feet, and cleaned her head with her paws. She continued, even till the time of her death, exceedingly shy and timid; but whenever I put into the cage any

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 a 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,

me.

favourite food, such as grains of wheat or maize, she would eat them before On the least noise or motion, however, she immediately rau off, with the grains in her mouth, to her hiding-place. One evening, as I was sitting at my writing-desk, and the animal was playing about in the open part of its cage, a large blue fly happened to buzz against the wires; the little creature, although at twice or thrice the distance of her own length from it, sprang along the wires with the greatest agility, and would certainly have seized it, had the space betwixt the wires been sufficiently wide to have admitted her teeth or paws to reach it. I was surprised at this occurrence, as I had been led to believe that the harvest mouse was merely a granivorous animal. I caught the fly, and made it buzz in my fingers against the wires. The mouse, though usually shy and timid, immediately came out of her hiding-place, and running to the spot, seized and devoured it. From this time I fed her with insects whenever I could get them; and she always preferred them to every other kind of food that I offered her. When this mouse was first put into her cage, a piece of fine flannel was folded up into the dark part of it as a bed, and I put some grass and bran into the large open part. In the course of a few days, all the grass was removed; and, on examining the cage, I found it very neatly arranged between the folds of the flannel, and rendered more soft by being mixed with the nap of the flannel, which the animal had torn off in considerable quantity for the purpose. The chief part of this operation must have taken place in 'the night; for although the mouse was generally awake and active during the daytime, yet I never once observed it employed in removing the grass. On opening its nest about the latter end of October, 1804, I remarked that there were, among the grass and wool at the bottom, about forty grains of maize. These appeared to have been arranged with some care and regularity, and every grain had the corcule, or growing part, eaten out, the lobes only being left. This seemed so much like an operation induced by the instinctive propensity that some quadrupeds are endowed with, for storing up food for support during the winter months, that I soon afterwards put into the cage about a hundred additional grains of maize. These were all in a short time carried away, and, on a second examination, I found them stored up in the manner of the former. But though the animal' was well supplied with other food, and particularly with bread, which it seemed very fond of; and although it continued perfectly active through the whole winter, on examining its nest a third time, about the end of November, I observed that the food in its repository was all consumed, except about half-a-dozen grains.”—W. J.