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 ran 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 ruuning 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 ana 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.

and their tails just two inches long. Two of them, in a scale, weighed down just one copper halfpenny, which is about the 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 thermometer was one day fourteen degrees and a half below the freezing point, within doors. The tender evergreens were injured pretty much. It was very providential that the air was still, and the ground well covered with snow, else vegetation in general must have suffered prodigiously. There is reason to believe that some days were more severe than any since the year 1739-40.*

LETTER XIV.

TO THE SAME.

SELBORNE, March 12, 1768. DEAR SIR,-If some curious gentleman would procure the head of a fallow deer and have it dissected, he would find it furnished with two spiracula, or breathing-places,* besides the nostrils; probably analogous to the puncta lachrymalia," lachrymal ducts," in the human head. "When deer are thirsty, they plunge their noses, like some horses, very deep under water, while in the act of drinking, and continue them in that situation for a considerable time; but, to obviate any inconveniency, they can open two vents, one at the inner corner of each eye, having a communication with the nose. Here seems to be an extraordinary provision of nature worthy our attention, and which has not,

*See Letter LXI.

The slits beneath the eyes of deer are certainly to facilitate breathing, as all keepers know. The separation of the nerves and blood vessels on the cheeks of deer does not affect the horns in any great degree, or even the cutting of the spermatic cord. Any injury, however, to the testicles in all cases either retards or alters the growth of the horns.-ED.

that I know of, been noticed by any naturalist. For it looks as if these creatures would not be suffocated, though both their mouths and nostrils were stopped. This curious formation of the head may be of singular service to beasts of chase, by affording them free respiration; and no doubt these additional nostrils are thrown open when they are hard run. * Mr. Ray observed that at Malta, the owners

* In answer to this account, Mr. Pennant sent me the following curious and pertinent reply :-" I was much surprised to find in the antelope something analogous to what you mention as so remarkable in deer. This animal also

has a long slit beneath each eye, which can be opened and shut at pleasure. On holding an orange to one, the creature made as much use of those orifices as of his nostrils, applying them to the fruit, and seeming to smell it through them."

[The structure of the glandular cavities, of which the orifices are here alluded to, precludes the possibility of their ever being used as accessory respiratory passages, or organs of scent.

The common integument is continued over the margins of the orifice, and is reflected over the whole of the interior of the cavity, which is altogether imperforate, except by the ducts of a large flattened mucous gland, which occupies its base; a few short hairs spring up in the interspaces of the terminal orifices of the ducts. Mr. Hunter, whose attention was probably called by his friend Pennant to this peculiarity of the deer and antelopes, has left several preparations of the glands and sinus, taken from the Indian and another species of antelope, and also from the deer; in which their condition as tegumentary sacs, having no communication with the nose, is clearly shown.

Conceiving that the secretion of these glands, when rubbed upon projecting bodies, might serve to direct individuals of the same species to each other, I prepared a tabular view of the relations between the habits and habitats of the several species of antelopes, and their suborbital, maxillary, post-auditory, and inguinal glands, in order to be able to compare the presence and degrees of development of the glands, with the gregarious and other habits of the antelope tribe. From this table it was, however, evident, that there is no relation between the gregarious habits of the antelopes which frequent the plains and the of the suborbital and maxillary sinuses; since these, besides being altogether wanting in some of the gregarious species, are present in many of the solitary frequenters of rocky mountainous districts. The supposition, therefore, that the secretion might serve, when left on shrubs or stones, to guide a straggler to the general herd, falls to the ground.

presence

The secretion of those cutaneous glands which are designed to attract the sexes, is generally observed to acquire towards the reproductive period a strong musky odour, as in the elephant and alligator; but the secretion of the suborbital sinuses, even when these are most fully developed, is devoid of any approach to a musky, or any other well defined odour.

Nevertheless, the subjoined observations of Mr. Bennett tend to give some probability to the theory which ascribes to the suborbital sinuses a sexual relation.-R. O.]

[It seems probable that these organs, on the use of which it is by no means