60 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



arranged for the new comer. In the bottom I 

 planted green sod to make the mouse's home as 

 near like nature as possible and here it lived con- 

 tentedly for many months, but every visitor who 

 carelessly put his or her hand against the cage 

 withdrew it with an exclamation of pain and sur- 

 prise, for the blunt nosed little mouse was always 

 on the lookout for an opportunity of this kind and 

 never missed a chance to sink its teeth into the 

 fingers that came within its reach. 



A YOUNG MEADOW MOUSE 



which I once captured proved, however, to 

 be a very gentle little creature and could be handled 

 with impunity. In captivity these little animals 

 make their nests in the form of hollow balls of the 

 dried grass cut down by them while eating the 

 roots. Meadow mice are given to migration, as 

 are the lemmings, and instances of such occurrences 

 are mentioned by Homer, Herodotus, and the 

 Bible. Armies of meadow mice are not unknown 

 in Europe. They have appeared at Vienna and 

 many parts of Germany, and they have been re- 

 corded as visiting many different parts of England 

 at intervals from 1648 to 1867, but here in Ameri- 

 ca they seem not yet to have adopted the migra- 

 tion fad. They are probably content with the dam- 

 age they can do near home. There are at present 

 about one hundred and sixty-five kinds of meadow 

 mice on record and we have our share of them, 



