THE HARVEST MOUSR. 221 



Curious nest. 



young mice that were naked and blind. As this 

 nest was perfectly full, it seemed difficult for the 

 dam to come at her litter respectively so as to 

 administer a teat to each. Perhaps, however, 

 the different places might be opened for that 

 purpose, and adjusted again when the business 

 was over; but she could not possibly be con- 

 tained herself in the ball with her young, which, 

 would also be daily increasing in bulk. This 

 wonderful cradle, an elegant specimen of the ef- 

 forts of instinct, was found in a wheat-field, sus- 

 pended in the head of a thistle. 



Our author remarked, that though the harvest 

 mice hang their nests above the ground, yet in 

 wintei they burrow deep in the earth, and make 

 warm beds of grass; but their grand rendezvous 

 seems to be in corn-ricks, into which they are 

 carried at . harvest. Some of them, on being 

 measured were found to be only two inches and a 

 quarter in length, exclusive of their tails, which 

 were nearly as long ; and when put into a scale 

 two of them weighed down just one copper half- 

 penny. Hence they are supposed to be the 

 smallest quadrupeds in this island. 



