66 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MAMMALIA. 



The field-vole measures four inches one line in the 

 length of the head and body, and one inch three and a 

 half lines in that of the tail. The fur is reddish brown 

 above, gray beneath. (Fig. 37.) A distinct species, 

 the Bank- vole {Arvicola pratensis, Baillon ; A. riparica^ 

 Yarrell ; A. rufescens, Selys-Longchamps) is found on 

 the Continent, and in some parts of England. It is less 

 than the former species, with a longer tail, and differs in 

 several particulars in its internal anatomy. 



The Harvest Mouse (Mus messorius). 



Of all our British mammalia the harvest mouse is the 

 smallest. This beautiful little species was first disco- 

 vered in our island by Gilbert White, and described in 

 his ' Natural History of Selborne.' Yet it is by no 

 means uncommon in the corn counties, and especially in 

 Hamj)shire, though so long overlooked by British natu- 

 ralists. It is found in Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, De- 

 vonshire, and Cambridgeshire, and occurs in France, 

 Germany, Russia, and Siberia. It is the Mulot nain 

 and Hat de moissonsoi' F. Cuvier; the Mus minutusoi 

 Pallas, and the Mus prndulinus of Hermann. 



The harvest mouse is a lively, active, playful little 

 creature : its eyes are dark ; its general colour above is 

 delicate reddish-fawn ; the under parts are abruptly 

 white ; the ears are short and rounded ; the tail is rather 

 shorter than the body. Length of head and body two 

 inches six lines. (Fig. 38.) 



This animal lives entirely in the fields, resorting in 

 the winter to burrows of its own construction, or to corn- 

 ricks, into which it penetrates, and there finds food and 

 shelter. The asylum in which it rears its young is an 

 artful and beautiful nest of a spherical figure, consisting 

 of the split leaves and panicles of grasses artificially in- 

 terwoven together, and suspended among the stalks of 

 standing corn, on thistles, or other plants, to which it is 

 secured, and of which the leaves will shroud it from no- 

 tice. (Fig. 39.) 



According to Dr. Gloger, the entrance to the nest is 



