THE LONG-TAILED FIELD MOUSE 



pests can imagine. Last spring they waged 

 war against my peas. I planted a long row 

 of a new very special sort which I was anxious 

 to try, but never one came up. When I 

 looked carefully at the soil I found many tiny 

 holes had been dug, and on turning the soil 

 over it became apparent that every pea had 

 been scratched up and eaten ! That night I 

 set some traps ; next morning the culprits were 

 there, and they were all field mice. Later on, 

 when more peas had been planted, had grown 

 up, and podded well, I was annoyed to find 

 that the peas were being eaten in the pods. 

 At first I thought that birds were to blame, 

 then I thought it was rats, and as a matter of 

 fact rats were mixed up in the mischief, but 

 the field mice were as bad. Traps set by the 

 rows caught quite a number that had been 

 enjoying themselves on the peas. They had 

 run up the sticks, and had either eaten the 

 peas where they hung, or bitten the pods off, 

 and eaten them afterwards on the ground. 



The long-tailed mouse is a wonderful climber ; 

 it is almost as much at home up aloft as the 

 dormouse, whose home is in the bushes. I have 

 seen a long-tailed mouse run through a briar 

 bush, then jump to the overhanging branch of a 



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