THE MEADOW MOUSE. 273 



He says that they are much worn by continual 

 treading, and that they are warped into a thousand 

 different directions*. 



As soon as the corn begins to ripen, the Meadow 

 Mice collect together from all quarters, and fre- 

 quently commit great havoc, by cutting the stalks 

 in order to come at the ears. When all the corn 

 is carried out of the fields, and nothing more is 

 left for them there, they generally resort to the 

 newly sown lands; and, if the numbers happen to 

 be great, their depredations will sometimes defeat 

 all the hopes of the succeeding year. Many of 

 them, like the Harvest Mice, are conveyed in the 

 sheaves into corn-ricks and barns, where they 

 occasionally do much damage. But those that 

 are left in the fields, either retire into the woods, 

 if there happen to be any in the neighbourhood, 

 to feed on the fallen acorns and beech-mast, or 

 retreat to their holes for the winter, and there live 

 upon what food they have previously amassed to- 

 gether. 



We are informed by M. de Buffon, that in 

 France the Meadow Mice appear, in some years, 

 in such amazing numbers, that, were they to con- 

 tinue undiminished for any great length of time, 

 they would commit the most alarming devasta- 

 tions. When their proper food becomes scarce, 



Barry's History of the Orkney Islands, p. 316. 



U they, 



