CHAPTER SEVEN OWLS &> RATS 



possible to say. Besides the shrew we have the common 

 house-mouse, the short-eared mouse, and that beautiful 

 bright-eyed kind the long-tailed field-mouse. *The last is 

 very destructive to the garden-seeds, and without the 

 assistance of the owls would be kept under with great 

 difificulty. The large-headed, short-eared mouse is not so 

 pretty an animal, but equally destructive, taking great de- 

 light in sweet peas and other seeds: they also climb the 

 peach-trees and destroy great quantities of the fruit. A fig- 

 tree this year, when its winter covering of straw was taken 

 off, was found to be entirely barked and all the shoots 

 eaten off by these mice. The shrew-mouse has the same 

 propensity for barking trees. I have known the former 

 kind, indeed, destroy Scotch fir-trees of the height of 

 fifteen or sixteen feet by nibbling and peeling the topmost 

 shoot till the tree gradually withered away. The quantities 

 of acorns and other seeds that the long-tailed field-mice 

 hoard up for their winter use show that, were they allowed 

 to increase, the mischief they would do would be incalcul- 

 able; and undoubtedly the best way of getting rid of all 

 mice is to preserve and encourage owls. The long-tailed 

 field-mouse has great capabilities as a digger, and in mak- 

 ing his hole carries up an incredible quantity of earth and 

 gravel in a very short time. When the weather is cold they 

 close up the mouth of their hole with great care. They 



'The shrews (Sore.x) belong to a totally distinct order from the mice, although the 

 superficial resemblance between the animals has given rise to the popular name ' 'shrew- 

 mouse. " The shrews, the hedgehog and the mole are the only British representatives of 

 the Order Insectivoi-a. Mice belong to the Order Rodentia. Nor is the animal referred 

 to by the author as the "short-eared mouse" a true mouse, but a vole — the field-vole 

 {_?.Iiirotus agreslis). The voles are distinguished from the mice by the teeth and the shape 

 ofthe skull. —Ed. 



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