HARVEST MOUSE 79 



already in existence. Not only must it be very local, but I 

 do not think it can be anywhere numerous, and it would 

 seem to have been more easily procured in MacGillivray's 

 day than now. 



In Ehind's list of mammalia found in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Edinburgh ("Excursions," 1836, p. 132), 

 " Mus messorius," the " Harvest Mouse," is entered with the 

 remark, " not uncommon " against it ; and MacGillivray states 

 in his " British Quadrupeds " (1838, p. 257) that one was sent 

 to him "from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh," ami also 

 that he once " found its nest in Fifeshire." In the " New 

 Statistical Account" (Clackmannanshire, 1840, p. 9) it is 

 included in a list of the animals of the parish of Alloa, and 

 as pointed out by Mr Alston (Scottish Mammalia, p. 28), 

 its size and weight correctly noted. 



Mr Small, taxidermist, Edinburgh, assures me that about 

 thirty years ago he received two, and within a week a third 

 specimen for preservation. They were all from the same 

 person, and Mr Small believes they were captured near Duns 

 in Berwickshire. Curiously enough, I learn from Professor 

 Duns that he once found a nest in the neighbourhood of the 

 same town ; this was prior to 1844 In August 18851 found 

 an unmistakable nest of this Mouse in a tuft of coarse grass 

 growing under a hedge surrounding a corn-field behind 

 Aberlady in East Lothian. It was about eighteen inches 

 above the ground, and was supported entirely by the stems 

 of the grass and a few of the twigs of the hedge. 



Since the above was written, Mr D. F. Mackenzie, factor, 

 Mortonhall, near Edinburgh, has informed me that in 1890 

 he observed a number of compact round nests among a 

 heavy crop of oats on the home-farm there. They were 

 placed one to two feet from the ground, and belonged to a 

 small reddish mouse which he saw more than once sitting on 



