CHANGING QUARTERS 



another aperture, smaller and not so well defined, opposite 

 this. During a storm the openings are carefully blocked 

 should the wind happen to blow from the side on which they 

 are situated, and so they are also during the winter when, in 

 England and other countries of the northern parts of its 

 range, the squirrel hibernates. Even in winter, however, 

 the animal ventures out at intervals on mild sunny days to 

 feed on the stores of nuts and beech-mast which it has laid 

 up in several of its haunts for future use. It is well known 

 that in case of danger squirrels will at once abandon the 

 dwelling they happen to be occupying at the time and take 

 up fresh quarters in one of the accessory nests, removing 

 their young one by one to the new nursery, which may be 

 situated at a considerable distance through the tree tops. 



Well constructed and comfortable as is the nest of A 

 squirrel, it falls short of that made by the Harvest Mouse 

 (Mus minutus) in both respects. This tiny creature is at 

 once the most elegant and, excepting only the lesser shrew, 

 the smallest of the British mammals, seldom weighing more 

 than one-sixth of an ounce. It frequents cornfields and 

 pastures, and is scarcely ever found in the neighbourhood of 

 houses except when carried home in the sheaves of corn. In 

 winter it makes a burrow in which it passes the cold months 

 in a state of torpor; it is, however, of its summer resi- 

 dence or nursery that we have to speak. This nest is, as 

 described by Gilbert White who first discovered the animal 

 in England, " perfectly round and about the size of a cricket 

 ball. 1 " It is suspended amongst the cornstalks, or occasion- 

 ally in a bush two or three feet from the ground, or even on 

 a stem of a reed, with which it sways about in the breeze. 

 The walls are made of blades of the wheat or grasses 

 amongst which the nest is built, and are plaited and inter- 

 laced with extraordinary skill. The little architect takes 



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