GNAWING ANIMALS — RODKNTS 123 



preferred before the white mouse, since it does not 

 smell if carefully fed. 



Kestrels, owls, stoats, and weasels all prey upon 

 the wood mouse, but these animals are so persistently 

 slaughtered by gamekeepers that the farmer and 

 gardener lose their valuable assistance in restraining 

 the number of mice. Rooks and crows are said to 

 dig up the nests of the wood mice and eat their 

 young. There is a mouse found in Hertfordshire 

 which was described by Mr. E. de Winton in the 

 ^Zoologist' for December, 1894, p. 441. It is 

 larger than the wood mouse, and has a yellow band 

 across its breast. It is said to have three more 

 bones in its tail than the wood mouse has, i. e. 30 

 as'ainst 27. 



The House Mouse. 



It would seem hardly necessary to say much about 

 this mouse, so common and so well known as he is. 

 For those who would wish to distinguish him from 

 the wood mouse, it may be helpful to say that the 

 common mouse is smaller. He is usually greyish- 

 brown in colour, and though there is considerable 

 variation, there is no tone of red in his coat, as in 

 that of the wood mouse. The under parts are 

 covered with a slightly paler fur, but they are not 

 white, and there is no patch on the breast. The 

 eyes and ears are much smaller than those of the 

 wood mouse, and the whiskers are not so full and 

 long. The house mouse has ten mammse, and the 

 wood mouse has only six. 



