SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 247 



that between the beginning of March and the beginning of July 

 one female wood mouse, at least, amongst those which he kept 

 in captivity, had five litters, the interval between each litter being 

 on an average twenty-five days. It is true that there were not 

 more than five, and as few as three, in these litters, whereas the 

 wood mouse when wild is known to have as many as nine or ten. 

 It may be, perhaps, that the mouse in a wild state does not breed 

 quite so frequently, but has more young at a birth. Mr. 

 Harrington's experiment was interrupted from various causes 

 in July, and there was nothing to show that the female which 

 had already had five litters that year would not go on producing 

 more into the autumn. In any case, these experiments showed 

 that a female wood mouse under favourable conditions could in 

 five months produce thirty-six young, the females among which 

 would be producing litters on their own account during the 

 summer and autumn. But for the attacks of birds of prey, 

 owls, weasels, stoats, snakes, and such other creatures which feed 

 on small Rodents, the wood mice would speedily devastate the 

 crops. As it is, they are occasionally, like the smaller voles, 

 responsible for locust-like ravages. Will it ever be brought 

 home to the British agriculturist by the Board of Agriculture 

 that all the above-enumerated " vermin " should be protected 

 so as to keep down the plague of rats and mice ? What harm is 

 really done by snakes in England ? None. What injury is 

 done to our supplies of food by the owl, the kestrel, the sparrow 

 hawk, the buzzard, kite, weasel, stoat, or polecat ? None at all, 

 worth mentioning. And if they do destroy a few pheasants' 

 eggs or kill an occasional rabbit or young hare, their own 

 existence in the country more than compensates for this modest 

 toll by the interest and beauty which they add to the landscape. 



Foxes also devour wood mice ; and their nests and young (it 

 is stated by Mr. Lydekker) are dug up by rooks and crows, who 

 use their strong beaks for this purpose. Mr. Trevor-Battye also 

 states that black-headed gulls pick up these mice and kill them by 

 dropping them on the ground from a height. 



The wood mouse is mainly a vegetable feeder, but will also eat 



