GNAWING ANIMALS EODENTS 117 



It was first noticed in England in Wiltshire by 

 Montagu^"^ but the first description was given by 

 Gilbert White, whose notes are quoted by Pennant 

 in his ' British Quadrupeds/ Grilbert White gives 

 the measurements as, head and body 2^ inches, tail 

 2 inches, while he says in Letter XIII of the 

 ' Natural History ' of Selborne, '' Two of them in a 

 scale weighed down just one copper half-penny, 

 which is about the third of an ounce avoirdupois ; so 

 that I suppose they are the smallest quadrupeds in 

 this island. A full-grown mtis medius domesticus 

 (house mouse) 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 4^ 

 inches, and the same in its tail/^ 



This little creature is so shy and alert and has 

 such a keen sense of hearing that it is rarely seen 

 except by the most observant of naturalists, although 

 Gilbert White speaks of having seen a hundred or 

 more under the thatch of an oat rick, but there is 

 no doubt that the animal is very local and scarce. 

 Mr. Millais says that it was abundant fifty years ago 

 in the Weald of Sussex, but that the close-cutting 

 reaping machines have almost exterminated it. 

 Since the principal food of the harvest mouse 

 consists of grain, its present rarity msty also be due 

 to the diminished cultivation of cereals in this 

 country. The site usually chosen by the harvest 

 mouse for its nest is a hedgerow bordering a corn- 

 field, and the nests are often found attached to corn- 

 stalks about a foot from the ground. They are com- 

 * ' Trans. Linn. Soc.,' voL vii, p. 274. 



