HARVEST MOUSE. 53 



Mr. Willughby * passed through that kingdom 

 on such an errand; but he seems to have skirted 

 along in a superficial manner, and an ill humour, 

 being much disgusted at the rude, dissolute manners 

 of the people. 



I have no friend left now at Sunbury to apply to 

 about the swallows roosting on the aits of the 

 Thames; nor can I hear any more about those birds 

 which I suspected were merulce torquatce. 



As to the small mice,f I have farther to remark, 



* See RAY'S Travels, p. 466. 



\ The mus messorius of Shaw is the least of British quad- 

 rupeds. Mr. White has the merit of discovering it, and has 

 added some interesting information regarding it in his different 

 letters. The Rev. W. Bingley, in his Memoirs of British 

 Quadrupeds, has the following very interesting remarks, 

 illustrating the habits of an individual for some time kept 

 alive in his possession. "About the middle of September, 

 1804, I had a female harvest mouse given to me. It was 

 put into a dormouse cage immediately when caught, and a 

 few days afterwards produced eight young ones. I entertained 

 some hope that the little animal would have nursed these, 

 and brought them up ; but, having been disturbed in her 

 removal, about four miles from the country, she began to 

 destroy them, and I took them from her. The young ones, 

 at the time I received them, (not more than two or three 

 days old,) must have been at least equal in weight to the 

 mother. After they were removed, she became reconciled 

 to her situation ; and when there was no noise, would 

 venture to come out of her hiding-place at the extremity of 

 the cage, and climb about among the wires of the open part 

 before me. In doing this, I remarked that her tail was pre- 

 hensile, and that, to render her hold the more secure, she 

 generally coiled the extremity of it round one of the wires. 

 The toes of all the feet were particularly long and flexile, 

 and she could grasp the wires very firmly with any of them. 

 She frequently rested on her hind feet, somewhat in the man- 

 ner of the jerboa, for the purpose of looking about her ; and, 

 in this attitude, could extend her body at such an angle as at 

 first greatly surprised me. She was a beautiful little animal, 



