THE FIELD MOUSE 527 
amassing’ stores of provisions in a separate chamber of its 
burrow near its dwelling apartment or altogether apart, in 
which work it is very diligent. Mr R. M. Barrington’ has 
observed that captives covered up single grains of wheat with 
the nose, like a dog, sometimes using the hind legs to scrape 
together a heap of material over it. Unlike dogs, they hid 
many things in the same place. 
It certainly does not hibernate, for it may be trapped 
freely at.the coldest part of the year. Charles St John* 
thought that on the approach of cold winds or rain they 
shut themselves up in their underground habitations, closing 
the apertures carefully, but corroborative evidence of this habit 
is desirable. 
The Field Mouse is extremely prolific, and the female 
produces several litters in a long polycestrous sexual season, 
which probably lasts the greater part of the year. 
Mr Barrington* found that young captured on 1st October 
first made a nest of grass when about thirty-six days old. 
Of two females which, with a single male, survived to reach 
maturity, the produce was as follows, young being first born 
when the dams were about five and a half months old :— 
Female A.—7th or 8th March, 3 young, ... days’ interval 
31st March, gia 24 ¥ 
24th April, Sip oa 24 ” 
17th May, BU sep 23 os 
12th June, A gs 26 re 
oth July, Aes; 27 m 
(In the case of the last two litters identification was not absolutely certain, 
one female having escaped.) 
Female B.—19th March, 5 young, ... days’ interval 
18th April, 5 ,, 29 as 
11th May, 5 ,, 2 

1 A well-known habit :— 
“Saepe exiguus mus 
Sub terris posuitque domos atque horrea fecit.” 
Vergil, Georg., i., 181 ; but why the rooting of pigs has been by writer after writer, 
at least from Pennant (1768) to Johnston (1903), supposed to be “chiefly owing 
to their search after the concealed hoards of the Field Mice,” is difficult to under- 
stand. 
BN OPN Ct.. X23. 3 C, St John., Wat. Hist. and Sport in Moray, 1882, 234. 
£ OD. cit. 
