Hanuest 



I*** They never enter into houses; are carried into 



ricks and barns with the sheaves ; abound in har- 

 vest ; and build their nests amidst the straws of the 

 corn above the ground, and sometimes in thistles. They breed as 

 many as eight in a litter, in a little round nest composed of the blades 

 of grass or wheat. 



One of these nests I procured this autumn, most artificially plaited, 

 and composed of blades of wheat ; perfectly round, and about the 

 size of a cricket - ball ; with the aperture so ingeniously closed, 

 that there was no discovering to what part it belonged. It was so 

 compact and well filled that it would roll across the table without 

 being discomposed, though it contained eight little mice that were 

 naked and blind. 



As this nest was perfectly full, how could the dam come to her 

 litter respectively, so as to administer a teat to each ? Perhaps she 

 opens different places for that purpose, adjusting them again when 

 the business is over ; but she could not possibly be contained herself 

 in the ball with her young, which, moreover, would be daily increas- 

 ing in bulk. 



This wonderful cradle, an elegant instance of the efforts of 

 instinct, was found in a wheat-field suspended in the head of a thistle. 



G. W. 



186 



