268 HARVE?T MOUSE. 



composed of dry blades ot coarse grass, arranged 

 in a globular form, and placed in the midst of a 

 tuft of Aira ccespitosa, at the distance of about nine 

 inches from the ground. It contained six or seven 

 naked and blind young ones. The young are said 

 by authors to vary from five to nine ; and as it 

 litters several times in the season, it is occasionally 

 numerous in corn-fields, on hedge-banks, and in 

 dry pastures. Its food consists of seeds, especially 

 of corn and grass, insects, and worms. In wheat- 

 stacks it is often found in great abundance, but in 

 general it forms burrows in the ground, in which it 

 probably deposits provisions for the winter. Mr 

 Bingley relates his having fed one with insects, 

 which it always preferred to any other food, and 

 the individual represented in the plate devoured an 

 earth-worm, which at first by twisting round its 

 body upset it. Like the other species, it may b-3 

 kept in confinement, but is said not to become so 

 familiar as the Wood Mouse. 



In form this species resembles the last, but is 

 proportionally more slender, with the head rather 

 larger. The general colour of its upper parts is 

 light reddish-brown, of the lower white, or silvery, 

 these colours meeting abruptly on the sides. Its 

 fur is soft, and rather short, dark-bluish at the base, 

 reddish kt the end, with blackish hairs interspersed ; 

 the mystachial bristles very long. The ears are 

 broad, rounded, and ^,bout a third of the length of 

 the head ; the eyes prominent, and black ; the feet 

 very delicate ; the tail nearly as long as the body 



