WOOD MOUSE. 91 



for its runs and stores. It wanders widely in its search for 

 berries, bulbs, and grain. In the matter of berries, it is not the 

 juicy pulp that it desires but the seeds, which it will carefully 

 pick out. It prefers the larger grains from the cornfield to 

 those of a grass-meadow. It is both timid and gentle in dis- 

 position, and on account of its short sight, it may be approached 

 closely and caught with the hand. 



Its stores of food are often communal, a colony of mice con- 

 tributing, for it is not always of solitary habit. These stores 

 are of the most varied character. Of the very miscellaneous 

 items on its menu a few may be mentioned : leaves of clover 

 and dandelion, with flower-buds of the latter, nuts of all kinds, 

 apples, grapes, gooseberries, crocus and hyacinth bulbs (Millais 

 says the Dutch were taught to multiply hyacinths by division 

 of the bulbs through observing the effects of this mouse's attacks), 

 acorns, rose and bramble seeds, slow-worms, eggs and putty ! 

 It has been known to enter beehives, and not only to eat the 

 honeycomb, but impudently to construct its nest there. De- 

 serted birds' nests are often adapted to its use, either as a 

 dining-room when seeking haws in the hedges, or as a 

 permanent habitation, in this case roofed with moss. 



The breeding nest is a globular structure of dry grass, and is 

 usually built in a separate chamber of the underground run, but 

 occasionally is on the surface or under a heap of hedge dtbris. 

 Some of the burrows may extend as much as three feet under- 

 ground. 



Towards the end of last century, Mr. de Winton called 

 attention to what was considered to be a new British mouse ' 

 the Yellow-necked Mouse (Apodemus flavicollis), distinguished 

 from the Wood Mouse by its larger size, the head and body 

 measuring four and a quarter inches, and the brown spot on 

 the chest commonly found in the Wood Mouse developed into 

 an orange cross whose arms are connected with the upper side 



