THE LONG-TAILED FIELD MOUSE 



nest ! I grabbed it, hoping to seize the mice 

 inside. One I did catch it was a big yellow- 

 necked long-tailed mouse but the second 

 managed to squeeze through my fingers, took 

 a flying leap into the grass, where it was as 

 useless to hunt for it as to search for the pro- 

 verbial needle in the bundle of hay. As it 

 jumped it struck me as being rather small and 

 dark for a yellow-neck, so it may have been an 

 ordinary long-tail. If so, this is the only time 

 that I have found these two mice living 

 together; but probably it was really a young 

 yellow-necked mouse, as the young ones are 

 duller and darker in their coats than the old 

 ones. It is possible if one can handle them to 

 tell young yellow-necked mice before they get 

 their full coat and colouring, as, even at that 

 early stage, the future yellow collar is there, 

 showing as a dull grey streak across the 

 throat. 



To go back to the two mice in the beehive, 

 what mischief they had done ! They had eaten 

 the brood comb, the stores of honey, the candy 

 put in as supplies for the winter, and even the 

 bees themselves. They had utterly destroyed 

 them ! On the floor of the hive was a piled 

 up litter of bits of wax, crumbled comb, and 



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