108 WOODLANDERS AND FIELD FOLK 



being if favourite haunt. Readily adapting itself 

 to circumstance, the field-mouse is an interesting 

 little creature in confinement. In this state it be- 

 comes almost omnivorous. It hoards perhaps a 

 greater variety of edible wild productions than the 

 squirrel and the dormouse. Its store contains 

 every variety of corn, grass-seeds, nuts, and 

 berries. Taking up its abode only in cultivated 

 places, it resorts much to gardens, orchards, and 

 out-buildings. It even comes into houses, and in 

 winter will visit the stable and granary. It is fond 

 of sweet, soft, pulpy fruits, and in strawberry beds 

 is a great nuisance. The dark-green leaves of the 

 strawberry and its running rhizomes afford splendid 

 cover, as well as harbouring abundant insects of 

 which the field-mouse is fond. This species breeds 

 twice a year, and has from five to ten young at a 

 birth. Mr Darwin, in showing how inextricably the 

 different forms of life are intermingled, does not 

 forget the field-mouse. The common red clover 

 is visited and fertilised only by bumble-bees, the 

 proboscis of the honey-bee not being long enough to 

 reach the nectar. The number of bumble-bees in any 

 district depends in a great measure on the number 

 of field-mice, which destroy the combs and nests. 

 The number of field-mice is again largely dependent 

 on the number of cats; and bumble-bees are there- 

 fore specially abundant near towns and villages 



