BRITISH MAMMALS 101 



newly built with concrete floors, and there 

 was no regular food supply to attract mice, 

 so this particular mouse must have come in 

 casually on the mere chance of picking up 

 something, and it must from the floor, nearly 

 20 ft. below, have found out that there was 

 corn in one of the bundles of texts behind 

 the brown paper that covered them, and I 

 think more wonderful still, it must have 

 discovered the only way of reaching it, along 

 the suspending cord. 



There used to be an old piano in the 

 Parish Room close to the new church. This 

 was not often used and one day when we 

 lifted the cover from the back part of the 

 keyboard we found snugly placed in a corner 

 of the bass notes an empty mouse's nest, 

 quite round like a bird's, and beautifully 

 made of dried bits of grass and coloured 

 worsted. It seems strange that a mouse 

 should have found such a place for its nest, 

 and stranger still that in a new large bare 

 room, with a solid wood-block floor, it should 

 have been able unobserved to go in and out 

 continually to. fetch the materials for it. This 

 it must have done, since none came from the 

 room itself. 



The long broad garden walk by the side of 

 the house seems to be a favourite thorough- 

 fare for hares; we constantly see them 

 passing at all times of the year. I wish 

 myself there were not quite so many hares 



