A WORD ABOUT MICE. 27 



or "of the meadow;" and here, under a canopy, to him, of vast and com- 

 plex herbage, he makes arcades in all directions, but all centring in an 

 underground retreat; and I have observed that he adapts himself to cir- 

 cumstances in the formation of his nest, namely, that where the grass is 

 long and undisturbed, he usually places his "cradle of the young" on the 

 ground, but where the grass is short and more or less fed, it is under- 

 ground, although he does not by choice fix upon a fed pasture. 



We now come to the Shrews, and these are very elegant little creatures, 

 and familiar to every one, as cats kill, but will not eat them, and thus 

 they are constantly found dead in our paths. The fur is most beautiful, 

 and much partakes of the character of that of the Mole, which keeps a 

 soft surface in any direction. These little creatures it is which we hear 

 like grasshoppers chirping in the herbage near us, so shrill is the sibilous 

 sound from their tiny throats. The Water Shrew is larger than the 

 common one, and, I think, somewhat lighter in colour; he is strictly 

 amphibious, and swims and dives with the greatest facility; his nose is 

 also prolonged more than that of his congener, and partakes very much of 

 the character of a snout. 



Last, and although least in one sense, not in another, we come to the 

 Mower's Mouse, a species which, until the year 1767, was, as far as is 

 known, unnoticed by naturalists. In that year Gilbert White, the Selborne 

 historian, in a letter to Thomas Pennant, first brought them into notice, 

 although we must suppose, as they are merely locally uncommon, they were 

 always known to villagers and others, whose occupation took them into the 

 fields so much. They are something like the Shrew in shape, but generally 

 smaller, and much lighter and redder. Their nest is about the size of a 

 cricket-ball, and usually suspended about three or four inches above the 

 ground, and fastened, or rather woven, around the stalks of the surrounding 

 corn. Into this "procreant cradle" there is apparently no entrance, but 

 the mother of the little ones, who are nestled so warmly within, has some 

 mode of getting in and out, although it be hid from human sight. These 

 little animals are very tame, and I have seen them feed from the hand 

 readily when in a state of domestication. 



There are varieties of almost all the different species, albinos or white 

 Mice, grey and black, but in all the chief characteristics are very distinct; 

 and let us never forget that these little creatures are only one out of 

 unnumbered genera of living beings, formed by the same hand which has 

 "done all things well." 



Pembroke Square, Kensington, December, 1857. 



