THE LONG-TAILED FIELD MOUSE 



aloft, it is only a matter of camping out for 

 a few days, wet or windy weather quickly 

 sending them home to the snug holes under- 

 ground. It is in the farthest corner of these 

 that they lay up stores for the lean days of 

 winter, when it is difficult for wild creatures to 

 find food, especially a keen active little mouse 

 which, unlike some other creatures of its size, 

 never thinks of sleeping through the cold hard 

 times. Nuts, acorns, and grain if it can be 

 had, are all carried in. Sweet chestnuts are 

 much liked too, and the minute the nuts begin 

 to fall long-tailed mice make for the chestnut 

 trees. Indeed all mice are very fond of sweet 

 chestnuts, and I have trapped under a chestnut 

 tree in the middle of a wood not only long- tailed 

 mice and bank voles, but also a house mouse ! 

 Perhaps the most long-tailed mice are to be 

 found in the corn fields. As soon as the grain 

 begins to ripen they leave their quarters in the 

 banks and hedges and go out into the fields. 

 Each mouse digs itself a hole about eighteen 

 inches long, from which it can raid the sur- 

 rounding grain. Here it lives and fares even 

 better than its friends that have stopped in 

 the woods and hedges. There is food on all 

 sides of it, grain which daily grows more 



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