THE HARVEST MOUSE 555 
given by Pallas, most of the older writers hesitated to assert, though 
some like Shaw and Montagu suspected, the identity of the western 
Harvest Mouse with that of Russia and Siberia. Another cause of 
the multiplication of names is found in the great variability (dependent 
in part upon season, age, and sex, and in part, perhaps, upon the 
individual) of the animal itself. Boie in 1823 appears to have been 
the first to ascribe western specimens to d7. minutus; his material 
came from Schleswig-Holstein, and he pointed out that the British 
M. messorius, Pennant, was probably a synonym. In 1827 A. Brants 
referred Dutch material to 47. minutus, and although MW. messortus, 
soricinus, and pendulinus figured in his book as distinct species (because 
specimens were lacking), he expressed his opinion as to their probable 
identity with J7. mznutus very clearly. 
It cannot be pretended, however, that the material at our disposal 
is sufficient to enable us to form any very sound opinion as to the 
extent of the geographical variation of this species, nor even as to the 
status of the few sub-species at present recognised. Such material as 
exists is for the most part hardly mature, and there are few 
specimens, even of the British form, which can, from a skull point of 
view, be regarded as more than adolescent. Further collection may 
therefore very well cause certain of the names now relegated to the 
synonymy to be revived and used for the designation of sub-species in 
the future. 
Terminology :—The Harvest Mouse is the (/us minimus of White 
(cited above); the “less long-tailed Field-Mouse” of Pennant (A777. 
Zool., 1768, ii., 498) and Berkenhout (1769). In all later works from 
Pennant (1776) to Millais (1905) it appears as the “ Harvest Mouse,” 
occasionally as the “ Harvest Rat,” so that there can be no serious 
question as to its correct designation, although the name is not now so 
appropriate as in the days of hand-reaping, when the species was much 
more frequently encountered at harvest-time. 
Local names (non-Celtic):— Harvest Mouse generally ; Red Ranny 
of Essex (Laver, J/S.). 
(Celtic):—Not usually distinguished. Welsh—Liygoden yr yd 
=“ Corn-Mouse.” 
History :—The discovery of the Harvest Mouse in Britain appears 
to have been made independently by Gilbert White, in Hampshire, 
and Montagu, in Wiltshire. White, in his tenth letter to Pennant, 
dated 4th August 1767, alludes to a previous conversation on 
the subject (“which I mentioned to you in town”). Montagu 
(1767) has claimed (Zrans. Linn. Soc., vii, 274, 1803) priority for 
his discovery, but White’s very accurate, and, for the date, complete 
account of the animal (Letter xii. to Pennant, 4th November 
1767; xiii, 22nd January 1768; xv., 30th March 1768 (“Linnzus, 
