THE HARVEST MOUSE. 267 



in a single rick, when pulled down to be housed. 

 Those that are not thus carried away in the sheaves, 

 shelter themselves, during winter, under the surface 

 of the ground, in some deep burrow; at the bot- 

 tom of which they form a warm and comfortable 

 bed of grass, and other softer substances. 



About the middle of September, 1804, I had a 

 female Harvest Mouse given to me by Mrs. Camp- 

 bell, of Chewton House, Hants. It had been put into 

 a Dormouse cage, immediately when caught, and a 

 few days afterwards produced eight young ones. I 

 entertained some hopes that the little animal would 

 have nursed these, and brought them up ; but hav- 

 ing been disturbed in her removal, about four 

 miles, from the country, she began to destroy 

 them, and I took them from her. The young ones, 

 at the time I received them, (not more than two 

 or three days old,) must have been at least equal in 

 weight to the mother. 



After they were removed, she soon became re- 

 conciled to her situation; and, when there was no 

 noise, would venture to come out of her hiding 

 place, at the extremity of the cage, and climb 

 about among the wires of the open part, before 

 me. In doing this, I remarked that her tail was, in 

 some measure, prehensile; and that, to render her 

 hold the more secure, she generally coiled the ex- 

 tremity of it round one of the wires. The toes of 

 all the feet were particularly long and flexile, and 

 she could grasp the wires very firmly with any of 



them. 



