THE LONG-TAILED FIELD MOUSE 



Now here in Shropshire where I live the two 

 sorts are equally common; both invade the 

 kitchen garden and steal all they can, but only 

 the yellow-neck is bold enough to come into 

 the house. Of the scores of long-tailed mice 

 that have been trapped in the cellars, dairy, 

 and larder, not one has been of the smaller kind, 

 but all have been the bigger. What handsome 

 mice they are ! more like small rats than real 

 mice, or shall we say small kangaroos, for there 

 is something nasty about the word 'rat,' and 

 these mice are altogether charming with their 

 dainty ways, while their jumping powers remind 

 one of the kangaroo. When put in a cage 

 with a wire roof eighteen inches high they 

 will spring up to the top in one high hop, and, 

 clinging to the netting, run about upside down. 

 Two of the finest that I have caught were taken 

 in an ordinary ' catch- 'em-alive ' trap. 



There is a holly bush against the wall of the 

 house, and I noticed one morning that some- 

 thing had been eating the berries, carrying 

 them from the tree to my window-sill, and there 

 leaving all the skins and odds and ends. So I 

 got a trap, set it, using cheese as a bait, and left 

 it on the sill. Next morning I found the trap 

 sprung, and wedged inside, without room to 

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