Hedgerow Life 
of young dormice, and found it empty 
and deserted. 
Field-mice, too, will make a nest in 
the hedges, and may often be seen climb- 
ing about after the berries, and I have 
even sometimes seen rats at the top of a 
high hedge. But the more usual place 
for them is in the bank of the ditch 
below. When the bank-side vegetation 
begins to die down in the autumn, their 
holes may be easily seen, and the long 
runs theymakealong the banks. Regular, 
well-trodden pathways they make for 
long distances —high-roads for the 
members of the rat world—along which 
they run on their nightly business. This 
business is mostly robbery. Corn, 
turnips, carrots, potatoes, and all manner 
of field crops, are brought along these 
runs under the cover of the night 
61 
