SQUIRRELS, BEAVERS, DORMICE, AND RATS 249 



and are pressed more closely to the neck. In shape and attitudes 

 the Harvest Mouse does not differ much from the common mouse. 

 Its coloration, however, is different, being a bright orange-brown 

 above on all the upper parts, and white or grayish-white below. 

 The tail and feet are flesh-colour. The warm brown of the 

 upper parts ranges in local variations from pale yellow to chestnut, 

 with an inclination to dark brown on the back. It is nearly as 

 prolific in breeding as the wood mouse, and the number of young 

 at a birth range from five to nine. The food of the harvest 

 mouse consists of corn, seeds, grass, insects, and worms. It 

 will eat bluebottle flies, and even bees. 



One of the most interesting characteristics of this tiniest of 

 mice is its elaborate and beautifully constructed nest in the shape 

 of a sphere. This is built at a height of from 6 in. to i ft. 

 above the ground, and is often constructed round two or more 

 contiguous upright stems of corn or grass. This ball of finely 

 plaited leaf blades, or of the panicles of roots or similar stems and 

 straws carefully shredded to the necessary degree of fineness by 

 the mouse's teeth, is sometimes without a visible aperture, the 

 probability being that the weaving of the plaited vegetation of the 

 elastic grass blades admits of the mouse passing in and out, while 

 the gap closes up behind. As the young grow, which they do 

 very rapidly, the soft, smooth interior of the ball becomes filled 

 up with them, so that it would be impossible for the mother to 

 get into the nest. It is difficult, therefore, to see how she can 

 give nourishment to the young, unless, as has been supposed by 

 some, she straddles over the outer surface, while the young push 

 their noses through the plaited framework, and thus get at the 

 teats. Later on, no doubt, the young issue through the interstices 

 one by one, and are suckled outside the nest. 



In winter-time the harvest mouse generally retires to burrows 

 in the ground. 



Its distribution in our country is entirely confined to England 

 and a small portion of Eastern and Lowland Scotland. It seems 

 to be absent from Ireland, such exceptions as are mentioned 

 referring probably to the young of the wood mouse. It has not 



