538 



R A T. 



sometimes spring. Now, though a man can of course 

 master a wild cat without much difficulty if he goes 

 the right way about it, he may get an ugly scratching, 

 The best mode of dealing with the cat is, therefore, 

 either to keep out of its way. or to be the first to 

 attack, tor unless it springs it is not very formidable. 

 There are sometimes other rodentia in the same 

 copses along with this mouse, the field mole for 

 instance, and sometimes the dormouse, though the 

 dormouse may be looked upon as rather a scarce ani- 

 mal in the copses of the northern glens, where the 

 cats are very plentiful as well as fierce. 



THE HARVEST MOUSE (M. mcssorius). This is the 

 only other species of true mouse, that is, of mouse with 

 tuberculous cheek teeth, that occurs in Britain ; and 

 hitherto it has been met with only in the south of 

 England, at least not farther to the north than Cam- 

 bridgeshire. As a British animal it was not known 

 till discovered by White, ofSelborne; but it has been 

 much longer known on the continent, in many parts 

 of which it is not rare. It occurs in Germany, in 

 Poland, and Russia, and also in Siberia ; but it appears 

 to have, like some of the other species, been called by 

 a great number of names. 



It is the smallest of British mammalia, and indeed 

 among the smallest of the whole order. The head 

 and body are two inches and a half in length, of which 

 the head occupies about five-sixths of an inch ; the 

 ears are shorter in proportion than those of any of 

 the other British mice, being only a quarter of an 

 inch ; the tail is a very little shorter than the head 

 and body, so that the total length of the animal is 

 rather less than five inches ; the body is more slender 

 in proportion to the length than in any of the others, 

 and the whole weight is not more than a quarter of 

 an ounce. The tails of all the genus are capable of 

 a good deal of motion, and contribute not a little to 

 the steadiness of their direction when they leap, which 

 they are understood to do when they catch insects on 

 the wing. The tail of this one, however, is prehen- 

 sile, and so used by the animal when it climbs the 

 cubuss of corn in order to feed on the grains, or the 

 milky juice of the young grains at the top. Its sum- 

 mer residence is chiefly in the corn-fields, where it is 

 supposed to feed upon insects until thegrainis ready; 

 in winter it either burrows to a considerable depth, 

 at which it remains torpid, or it gets into the shelter 

 of a rick of corn or some other place, where it can 

 find both warmth and food, and in such situations it 

 continues active, carries on its breeding, and knows 

 no winter. It does not appear that it carries mutfh 

 provision *o its under-ground retreats, in which it 

 becomes dormant. 



It is a very pretty little creature both in its form 

 and its colours, and it is quick and lively in its action, 

 and capable of undergoing u great deal of fatigue. 

 The colour of the upper part is bright reddish brown, 

 produced by the different colours of the basal and 

 distal parts of the hairs, the basal parts being dusky 

 blatk, and the terminal or distal parts brown. The 

 under parts are pure white, and the npper and under 

 colours do not pass gradually into each other as they 

 do in many of the genus, but meet at a well-defined 

 boundary. 



The nest is not under or even on the ground, but 

 suspended to the stems of the corn, and is a very 

 pretty structure. The annexed cut will give some 

 idea of the external appearance of the nest, and the 

 relative size of it and the animal. 



This nest is constructed in rather a laborious man- 

 ner, wholly of vegetable materials, but varying with 

 such as can be most readily obtained. It is about 

 half a foot from the ground, and, in most cases, fast- 

 ened to the stems of living plants. It is in the shape 

 of a round ball, neatly woven with vegetable fibres 

 which the animal appears to obtain by splitting the 

 long leaves of the corn and other plants of the same 

 family with its teeth. These are matted up, with 

 husks and other short substance*, until the nest is 

 very compact. The nest appears to be so constructed, 

 that it can by its elasticity accommodate itself to the 

 number of young that may happen to be in the litter, 

 and also to the increase of the edge as they grow. 

 The young vary from four or five to nine or ten ; and 

 the nest is made very smooth inside for them ; and 

 they always appear completely to fill it, whatever 

 may be their number. The entrance to the nest is 

 by a small aperture in the side, which partially opens 

 and shuts, in consequence of the elasticity of the 

 structure. The manner in which it goes to work in 

 the constructing of this nest is of course not known ; 

 but the fore paws of the little animal are what may 

 called very "handy;" and the prehensile tail must 

 enable it to have full command of them in working, 

 which is probably one of the chief uses of that pecu- 

 liar instrument ; though it may also enable the mother 

 to support herself while she suckles her young, as it 

 does not appear that she can very easily get into the 

 nest along with them. Much of its domestic ecortomy, 

 however, is, and we fear must always remain, matter 

 of mere conjecture, of which the accounts that are 

 given in writing will vary with the discretion of the 

 writers. 



Though a very timid and delicate little animal, the 

 harvest-mouse will not only live, but breed, in a state 

 of confinement ; only it requires a good deal of exer- 

 cise, and should be provided with a little tread-mill 

 in its cage, to which it does not require to be sent, as it 

 appears to like the exercise. But, notwithstanding 

 its diminutive size, its handsome form and its beauty, 

 it shows the disposition indicated by the tuberculated 

 cheek-teeth. When the female produces young ones 

 in captivity she often eats them, and Mies, especially 

 bluebottles, excite the desire for animal food. If 

 they come near its cage it springs at them with its 

 fore paws extended, much in the same way a^hne 

 may see a cat doing when engaged in rh -catching 

 on a fine day. The preference given to these above any 

 sort of vegetable food isadecisive proof of the general 

 habit of "the animal, and renders it highly probublo 

 that, as we have already hinted, the summer food 

 consists in great part of insects. As is often the case 

 with the field-mouse, the harvest-mouse is carried in 

 the sheaves of corn, and often produces a considerable 

 progeny in the rick or the mow ; and in proportion 

 to its size, it is by no means the least destructive of 



