60 THE MAMMALS, REPTILES, AND FISHES OF ESSEX. 



diet is composed largely of insects, they probably do more 

 good than harm. 



Mus sylvaticus, Linn. WOOD MOUSE. 



Common everywhere in Essex. A gentle little creature, 

 and a delightful home pet, but one of the most destructive of 

 its race in fields, gardens, or plantations. Plots of newly- 

 sown peas or corn are especial objects of its attention. It is 

 rarely found in houses, barns, or ricks, much preferring the 

 shelter of a hedgerow or wood. 



The colour of different specimens varies considerably in 

 its range of shades of red. Albinos are occasionally taken. 



Of all our native Mice, this is the most easily tamed. An 

 occasional specimen is more than usually friendly, and may 

 be induced to come into the hand within a month of capture. 

 I generally have some of these little creatures in confinement. 

 They are extremely friendly one with another, and a large 

 number, even of complete strangers, may be kept together. 

 This gregarious way of living seems natural to the Wood 

 Mouse, for fourteen or fifteen, and even more, may some- 

 times be dug out of one burrow. They work in company in 

 storing provisions, bunches of growing barley or other corn 

 often showing clearly where their storehouse has been. 



Nothing in the way of vegetable food seems to come 

 amiss to this very abundant mouse. 



Mr. J. E. Harting gives (Trans. Essex Field Club, vol. 

 i., p. 92), a quotation from Joshua Childrey's Britannia 

 Baconia (London, 1660, 8vo, p. 100), where he says that in 1580 

 an extraordinary swarm of Field Mice appeared in Dengie 

 hundred, in Essex, which ate up all the roots of the grass. 

 It may be questioned whether the chief offender in committing 

 these depredations was not the Short-tailed Field Vole 

 (Arvicola agrestris], under which further mention of this 

 plague of mice will be found (see p. 66). 



