MANUAL INSTRUCTION 327 



rent its soaking into the ground. I have never found a nest that could 

 not have been better guarded from the damps of winter than from those 

 terrific cloud-bursts that recall the vivid description in Genesis of the 

 lioachian deluge. During such rainfalls, for which the month of 

 August is noted, very many white-footed mice are drowned. 



From such scanty observations as I have been able to make, I am 

 led to believe that the habit of such removals from the ground to the 

 bushes has been brought about by the greater exposure to the attacks 

 of enemies, when nesting upon the ground ; these enemies being weasels, 

 minks, and crows. 



The two mammals I have named are certainly more given to prowl- 

 ing about the haunts of the mice in winter than in summer ; and the 

 crows, particularly when the ground is frozen, have often been seen 

 tugging away at the unyielding stones or wood that sheltered such 

 mice as had concluded that their present quarters were so favorably 

 conditioned as to prove effectual against the assaults of whatever 

 enemy might chance to come. The fact that the poor creatures some- 

 times suffered from an error of judgment led me to conclude that the 

 representatives of the weasel family, that I have mentioned, and the 

 omnivorous and omnipresent crow, are ever eager to capture white- 

 footed mice whenever an opportunity occurs. 



Probably years of further observation will prove necessary to clear 

 up this important point of the cause that led to the habit of utilizing 

 abandoned birds' nests ; but I have no doubt that the question of com- 

 parative safety of the two situations, the ground or a thicket of smilax, 

 had much to do with it. 



MANUAL INSTRUCTION. 



By Sir JOHN LUBBOCK. 



MR. MUNDELLA, in an interesting address which he delivered 

 at the Polytechnic last year, took us Londoners somewhat se- 

 verely to task because more is not done in the metropolis to provide 

 for the intellectual wants of our people. Certainly I must admit, as a 

 Londoner, that we are far from being as advanced as we could wish. 

 I would, however, point out two reasons. In the first place, the areas 

 of government in London are for many purposes too small. I have no 

 desire to speak disrespectfully of vestries or vestrymen. But take the 

 case of free libraries : London is reproached for having so few, but 

 would Birmingham have had its magnificent library if it were governed 

 by the vestries of the separate parishes ? One reason which has de- 

 feated the efforts to establish free libraries in London has been that 

 the parishioners have been told that, while the expense would fall on 

 them, readers could come in from other parishes. A bill should be 

 proposed next session to remedy this by amending the Free Libraries 



