58 NATURAL HISTORY 



A gentleman curious in birds, wrote me word that 

 his servant had shot one last January, in that severe 



name of Mm minutus, asserting at the same time (but erroneously) that the 

 Mus messorius of Pennant, the Hampshire harvest-mouse, is only a small 

 variety of his Mus sylvaticus. Pallas found his animal in birch woods, in 

 several parts of Russia ; but he had not observed it in Germany. It has 

 since occurred in the latter country ; and Dr. Gloger has well described 

 its nest in a paper published in the Transactions of the German Academy. 

 It was beautifully and elaborately constructed of the panicles and leaves 

 of three stems of the common reed interwoven together, and forming a 

 roundish ball suspended on the living plants at a height of about five 

 inches from the ground. On the side opposite to the stems, rather below 

 the middle, was a small aperture, which appeared to be closed during the 

 absence of the parent, and was scarcely observable even after one of the 

 young had made its escape through it. The inside, when examined with 

 the little finger, was found to be soft and warm, smooth, and neatly 

 rounded, but very confined. This nest contained but five young ; but one 

 less elaborately formed, previously examined by Dr. Gloger, was found to 

 afford shelter to no less than nine. The panicles and leaves of the grass 

 were very artificially woven together, the latter being first slit by the 

 action of the little animal's teeth into more or less minute bands or 

 strings. No other substance was used in the construction of the nest, 

 which was altogether without cement, or any means of cohesion save 

 the interweaving of its component parts : it consequently suffered consi- 

 derable disturbance even from the most careful handling, losing in neat- 

 ness of form as much as it gained in its increasing size. 



The fullest account that has yet appeared of the habits of the harvest 

 mouse in captivity has been furnished by the Rev. W. Bingley : his ob- 

 servations are so full of interest as to authorise their introduction here. 



About the middle of September, 1804," he says, I had a female 

 harvest mouse given to me. It was put into a dormouse cage immedi- 

 ately when caught, and a few days afterwards produced eight young 

 ones. I entertained some hopes that the little animal would have nursed 

 these and brought them up ; but having been disturbed in her removal 

 about four miles from the country, she began to destroy them, and I took 

 them from her. The young ones at the time I received them, (not more 

 than two or three days old), must have been at least equal in weight to 

 the mother. 



" After they were removed she became reconciled to her situation ; 

 and when there was no noise, would venture to come out of her hiding- 

 place at the extremity of the cage, and climb about among the wires of 

 the open part before me. In doing this, I remarked that her tail was 

 prehensile, and that, to render her hold the more secure, she generally 

 coiled the extremity of it round one of the wires : the toes of all the feet 

 were particularly long and flexible, and she could grasp the wires very 

 firmly with any of them. She frequently rested on her hind feet, some- 

 what in the manner of the jerboa, for the purpose of looking about her; 

 and, in this attitude, could extend her body at such an angle as at first 



