74 OBSERVATIONS ON QUADRUPEDS. 



about the size of a cricket-ball:" but it was not 

 quite so firm and compact as the one he mentions ; 

 which might have been owing to the more forward 

 state of the litter contained in it, and the longer 

 period which had elapsed since its construction. It 

 was composed chiefly of dry grass, with the addition 

 of a few straws, and lined internally with more deli- 

 cate roots and fibres. The aperture was not easily 

 discoverable. 



LONG-TAILED FIELD-MOUSE.* 



THIS species, as is well known, usually frequents 

 woods, fields, and gardens : in kitchen-gardens its 

 depredations upon the newly sown crops of peas in 

 the spring are often ruinous. In one instance, how- 

 ever, I knew an individual of this species that was 

 caught in a house, in the cupboard of a bed-room on 

 the second floor. 



My brother one winter found a large collection of 

 beech-mast accumulated in a hole under ground, at 

 the foot of one of the beech-trees in the park at 

 Bottisham Hall. These had probably been brought 

 together by one of these mice, which are well known 

 to make hoards of food against the winter. 



COMMON MOUSE.f 



THE colours of the common mouse are naturally 

 extremely bright, and can hardly be judged of from 

 individuals found in houses, which contract more or 



* Mus sylvaticus, Linn. t Mus musculus, Linn. 



