122 COMMON r>RIT18H ANIMALS 



they had formed several bulblets, which, on being 

 planted, all flowered in due course. Now the idea 

 has been ado[)ted, and the method of reproducing 

 hyacinth bulbs is to make several cross-cut incisions 

 into them with a knife, and then plant them. 



But the wood mouse, like the harvest mouse, likes 

 a spice of animal food, such as gnats, flies, moths, 

 butterflies, and grubs. Mr. Millais ^ speaks of 

 having discovered some wood mice living in some 

 old copper workings in the New Red Sandstone, and 

 on trapping and dissecting a number of them he 

 found no vegetable matter in their stomachs, but, 

 instead, the}^ were crammed with the bodies of a 

 fly which swarmed in the workings. 



The nest is usually made in a burrow in the 

 ground ; sometimes deserted mole runs have been 

 used, or old birds' nests adapted to their needs, but 

 the latter are more often used as store-houses for 

 winter supplies. Old nests of the blackbird and 

 thrush are often found filled with hip and haw seeds. 

 iMr. C. Oldham discovered that these stores weie 

 made by the wood mouse. He does not eat the 

 pulp of the fruit, but just cracks the seed and eats 

 the kernel. 



Mary Howitt, in a poem on the wood mouse, 

 says : 



" In the liedge-sparroAv's nest he sits. 

 When his summer brood is fled. 

 And picks the berries from the bong-h 

 Of the hawthorn overhead." 



The wood mouse makes an excellent pet, to be 

 * Loc. cit., vol. ii, 191. 



