FIELD MOUSE. 71 



Common Mouse. Timid and feeble, but, at the same 

 time, mischievous and troublesome, these little creatures 

 are found, almost exclusively, in dwellings, barns, and 

 out-houses, and seldom in the fields. Their nests are 

 formed in holes of walls, or behind wainscots ; and the 

 number of young ones which they produce is from six to 

 ten at a litter, and this several times in the year. In their 

 habits they are extremely playful and frolicsome. Their 

 enemies are numerous. If kept in a cage they are seldom 

 known to become familiar. 



Field Mouse. To the gardener, as well as to the farmer, 

 these animals sometimes prove very injurious, by devour- 

 ing the seeds, particularly peas and beans, in great quan- 

 tity, almost as soon as they are sown. They reside in 

 holes in the ground, and generally amongst brushwood 

 and in hedge-bottoms. Here they are sometimes known 

 to collect together as many peas, nuts, and acorns, on all 

 of which they feed, as would fill a bushel. So numerous 

 are they in some places, that M. de Buffon knew of more 

 than 2000 having been caught in a prece of ground con- 

 taining not more than about forty acres, in the course of 

 twenty-three days. Their rapidity of increase may easily 

 be conceived, when it is stated, that twenty young ones 

 have been found in one nest. 



There are three distinct kinds of Field Mice in this 

 country, but the one above mentioned is distinguished 

 from the other two by its tail being generally from three 

 to four inches in length. The length of the body is from 

 three inches and a half to four and a half; and the colour 

 of the upper parts is brownish, and of the lower parts 

 white. 



