THE FIELD-MOUSE 157 



ently no deleterious effect. Their fondness for 

 bulbs is a great nuisance to the Dutch tulip - 

 merchants. As many as 300 have been trapped 

 in a fortnight in a single crocus-bed. They 

 are also a nuisance to bee-keepers, inasmuch 

 as they enter the hive and eat the honeycomb, 

 especially during the winter. Whilst feeding 

 in the hedgerows, or undergrowth, they fre- 

 quently establish themselves in birds' nests, and 

 occasionally such nests become their permanent 

 home. 



In the hedge-sparrow's nest he sits, 

 When the summer brood is fled, 



And picks the berries from the bough 

 Of the hawthorn overhead. 



{Sketches of Natural History, 1834.) 



They are not above sucking the birds' eggs, 

 or even devouring the young birds. They 

 will sometimes enter disused tunnels and 

 devour hibernating flies and other insects. 

 Unlike rats, they seldom enter human habita- 

 tions, and they are quite innocent of the 

 peculiar odour which is so disagreeable in 

 the house-mouse ; and unlike the house-mouse 

 and the harvest-mouse they are seldom found 

 in stacks of corn. Their preference for berries 

 explains the fact that they generally haunt 

 woods and hedgerows, and their passion for 

 growing corn accounts for the fact that they 

 swarm in cornfields towards harvest-time. 



