The Mammalian Fauna of the Edinburgh District, 141 
seem to have been more easily procured in MacGillivray’s 
day than now. 
In Rhind’s list of mammalia found in the immediate 
neighbourhood of Edinburgh (“ Excursions,” 1836, p. 132), 
“ Mus messorius,” the “ Harvest Mouse,” is entered with the 
remark, “ not uncommon” against it; and MacGillivray states 
in his “ British Quadrupeds” (1838, p. 257) that one was sent 
to him “from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh,” and also 
that he once “found its nest in Fifeshire.” In the “ New 
Statistical Account” (Clackmannanshire, 1840, p. 9) it is 
included in a list of the animals of the parish of Alloa, and 
as pointed out by Mr Alston (Scottish Mammalia, p. 28), 
its size and weight correctly noted. 
Mr Small, taxidermist, Edinburgh, assures me that about 
thirty years ago he received two, and within a week a third 
specimen for preservation. They were all from the same 
person, and Mr Small believes they were captured near Duns 
in Berwickshire. Curiously enough, I learn from Professor 
Duns that he once found a nest in the neighbourhood of the 
same town; this was prior to 1844. In August 1885 I found 
an unmistakable nest of this Mouse in a tuft of coarse grass 
growing under a hedge surrounding a corn-field behind 
Aberlady in East Lothian. It was about eighteen inches 
above the ground, and was supported entirely by the stems 
of the grass and a few of the twigs of the hedge. 
Since this paper was read, Mr D. F. Mackenzie, factor, 
Mortonhall, near Edinburgh, has informed me that he last 
year observed a number of compact round nests among a 
heavy crop of oats on the home-farm there. They were 
placed one to two feet from the ground, and belonged to a 
small reddish mouse which he saw more than once sitting on 
the heads of the corn. Hoping they would reappear in the 
barley with which the field was this year cropped, a strict 
lookout for them has been kept, but to no purpose, nor have 
they been seen in any of the other fields on the farm. From 
Mr Mackenzie’s minute description, I have no doubt the 
animals were a small colony of Harvest Mice, but it would 
have been more satisfactory had I been able to examine a 
specimen. 
