R A T. 



537 



carefully preventing all otlier mire from entering, and 

 it was not very long till lie found that he had a 

 colony of six score ; nor is there any doubt that 

 they would have gone on until the whole corn in the 

 vessel had been converted into mice, after which 

 they might probably have eaten each other up to the 

 last mouse, though certainly not to the cannibalism of 

 the Kilkenny cats, which, in the course of one single 

 night, ate each other, except " the two tails and a bit 

 of claw." Six weeks is understood to be the whole 

 length of time necessary for enabling the young 

 mice to find their subsistence independently of any 

 attention from the mother, five-and-twenty days of 

 which is occupied in the gestation, and the remainder 

 in the nursing. At what age they become fertile is 

 not exactly known, but it is understood to be at a 

 very early one ; and it must be so, otherwise Aristotle 

 would not have obtained 120 in a short time. 



Farmers often discover the fact of this rapid in- 

 crease without wishing for it. If one rick of corn is 

 left in the stack-yard, and all the rest of the crop dis- 

 posed of, so that the barns, houses, and grain-lofts, 

 are empty, then the whole mice take up their abode 

 in the unfortunate rick, if it is not so built as to 

 prevent their having access. There they are quite 

 at home ; and though they are not much seen out- 

 side, or much heard, except by their feeble chirpings 

 by the way, there is no word in English expressive 

 of that class of sounds among which the voice of the 

 mouse may be reckoned. It is not " chirping," and 

 it is not " whistling," but something between the two. 

 The Scotch word cheeping, as distinguishing from 

 irlieeping, which means short whistling, does it ex- 

 actly. They are, however, not the less busy on that 

 account. They do not disfigure the outside of the 

 rick, but they sometimes, notwithstanding, reduce the 

 whole of the inside to chaff, and put one in mind of 

 the white ants, and other insects of warm countries, 

 which, working in the dark, unheard and unseen, 

 reduce the whole interior of a tree to powder. The 

 length of the common mouse, when full grown, is 

 nearly three inches and a quarter in the head and 

 body, of which rather less than one inch is occupied 

 by the head ; the tail is nearly three inches in length, 

 and the ears, which are oval, are nearly half an inch ; 

 the fur on the back is of a peculiar brownish ash, 

 technically known as mouse colour, and the under 

 part is pale ash ; the cars and the tail are covered 

 with heavy short and soft fur. 



Though the colours which we have mentioned be 

 those in which the common mouse is most frequently 

 seen, yet it is subject to some varieties, and also to 

 albinoism ; and it is a curious fact that the albinos 

 are based in a variety, the pure white colour and the 

 red eyes being transmissible from generation to 

 generation. This does not, we believe, take place in 

 a state of nature, for the " white mice" are all bred 

 for being kept in confinement as curiosities. The 

 " manufacture" of them, so to call it, was begun in 

 Italy, and they are still carried about in little cages 

 or tread mills by the beggar boys from Cisalpine Italy, 

 if which such numbers infest our streets, and are so 

 cruelly used by the wretches that make a most ini- 

 quitous gain of them and their mice. It is not a littlo 

 singular that northern Italy, the valley of the Arno 

 I'.hidly, should have been the place where an albino 

 variety of the common domestic ox was bred, and 

 that the small remain which yet exists in England 

 should retain in great part the white colour. 



THE LONG-TAILED FlELD MOUSE, Of WoOD MOUSE 



(M. sylvaticus}. This is one of the most abundant and 

 most mischievous of all the mice : it does not come 

 into the houses like the former species, but out of 

 doors it is here, there, and every where, and alwavs 

 doing mischief to every kind of vegetable and vege- 

 table substance which it can injure. 



It is half an inch longer than the common mouse 

 in the head and body, and another half inch in the 

 tail ; the ears are also larger, the eyes larger and 

 more prominent, the muzzle darker, the whiskers verv 

 long, the feet well adapted for running, the fore ones 

 for grasping and the hind ones for leaping. It is a 

 very pretty* little animal, gentle in its disposition, and 

 though very timid in a state of nature it readily bears 

 confinement. The upper parts are yellowish brown, 

 inclining to blackish on the back ; the under part is 

 greyish white, with a yellowish spot on the breast ; 

 the hairs on the upper part are annulated, being grey 

 at the base, yellowish in the middle part, and some 

 black, others reddish at the tips. It is an exceedingly 

 swift-footed animal for its size, and runs about with 

 wonderful celerity. It is very prolific, having cer- 

 tainly two litters in the year, and probably four, each 

 of which averages about eight. It is a burrowing 

 animal, unless it can find sufficient cover under low 

 and closely-tangled bushes. It is a clever excavator 

 itself, but it sometimes avails itself of the runs of the 

 mole, especially in winter, at which time thev art: 

 deserted. In its retreats under ground, and some- 

 times under a bunch of moss which it collects, it 

 stores up the plunder of the fields, which plunder it 

 takes in large quantity. If ricks of corn are left in 

 the fields, this mouse is as apt to enter them as the 

 common mouse is, and it is as often found along with 

 the common mouse in farm -yards. In gardens and 

 nursery grounds it is especially destructive, and 

 every means that can be thought of for destroying it 

 is put in execution. All will not do, however ; the 

 mouse returns to the charge, and the watchfulness of 

 the gardener is never at an end ; he has a good many 

 fellow labourers too in the destruction of this mouse ; 

 the owls are among the most efficient of these, and 

 as such ought to be encouraged about gardens and 

 nurseries. The kites lend a hand, but they are shy 

 of coming so near, and the weasel tribe are conducive 

 to the same end ; even the hog helps to carry on the 

 war against this mouse. It does not, it is true, eat 

 the mice themselves, but it, according to Pennant, 

 roots up their hoards of provisions, and thereby 

 mangles and disfigures the surface. 



Another formidable enemy of this mouse, and of 

 all the small rodervtia that frequent wooded places, is 

 the common wild cat. There are certain seasons of 

 the year when the mice get very abundant and fat in 

 the copses, and where the cats capture them in great 

 numbers. This is chiefly in autumn, and the best 

 places are the hazle copses in remote situations, 

 where few people go to gather the nuts ; these fall 

 when ripe, and at this time the mice throng to the 

 copse, dig their magazines, and instantly set about 

 storing them with this favourite food ; the cats an: 

 there in force also, and keep yelling the whole night 

 long. It is not over pleasatit to come upon them at 

 those times. All the feline race are sulky while 

 feeding, or even in the anticipation of feeding ; and as 

 the ca,ts among the mice in the wild copse may be 

 said to be upon their own ground, and killing their 

 own mutton, they are not fond of budging, and will 



