A HISTORY OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 



' quite naked and blind ' on 29 September, 

 and had been told of several other nests early 

 in October containing young. I was told of 

 a nest in the hedge of a cottage garden at 

 Cadmore End, which contained quite small 

 young, somewhere about 2O August. The 

 dormouse would therefore seem to share with 

 the gray seal the distinction of being the 

 only British mammals having young but 

 once a year that select the autumn for the 

 event. I found a dormouse's nest near 

 here on 22 September in a hazel bush in a 

 hedge, formed of coarse hedge-side grass, 

 lined with hazel leaves, which were still 

 quite green and fresh. A friend climbing a 

 spruce fir in Sussex to a supposed magpie's 

 nest twenty feet from the ground dislodged 

 from it a dormouse, which ran up and down 

 the smooth upright stem with great ease for 

 some time before we could catch it. In 

 Surrey many years ago I found one dead in 

 a thrush's nest, which had apparently been 

 killed there by one of the birds. In captivity 

 dry toast forms a very suitable stock food. 



22. Harvest Mouse. Mus minutus, Pallas. 



During the last thirty years or so, many 

 thousands of mice have passed through my 

 hands (as food for sundry British carnivorous 

 animals, hawks, etc.). I have sometimes had 

 200 live mice, or even perhaps 300, in my 

 possession at one time after a day's thrashing; 

 and considerably larger quantities dead ; be- 

 sides multitudes singly or in small quantities, 

 trapped or otherwise procured under a great 

 variety of circumstances. Never however, out 

 of all these hosts, including several species, have 

 I recognized a harvest mouse, and I can hardly 

 be wrong in concluding that they must be 

 rare, or perhaps very local, in the county. 

 All the harvest mice that I have seen were 

 captive specimens procured in other coun- 

 ties ; for instance, my friend, F. H. Salvin, 

 captured a number at his place in Surrey I 

 think something like a dozen and a half 

 which he presented to the Zoological Society, 

 and my late respected friend, Professor Rolles- 

 ton of Oxford, kept a pair alive for a con- 

 siderable time under a bell glass in his dining 

 room, by which arrangement they could be 

 observed almost to perfection. Several per- 

 sons have assured me that harvest mice are 

 quite common in the county, but on the 

 slightest attempt at cross-examination have 

 proved so vague on the subject, not being 

 sure even whether they have long or short 

 tails, or whether they are larger or smaller 

 than the common house mouse, that their 

 evidence is valueless ; but from a very few 



persons I have obtained what appears reliable 

 information as to their existence in the county, 

 so hope eventually I may secure specimens. 

 Probably the species has everywhere greatly 

 decreased since machinery was introduced, 

 which reaps corn so much closer to the 

 ground than stubbles were formerly left. 



23. Long-tailed Field Mouse. Mus sylvati- 

 cus. Linn. 



Very plentiful, but its numbers probably 

 fluctuate (as also those of the grass and 

 bank voles) very greatly in any particular 

 locality in different years, or groups of years. 

 It breeds all the year round ; on 16 January 

 1893, f r instance, we captured in our garden 

 at Great Marlow a litter of seven, probably 

 barely three weeks old. On 28 March 1884 

 I was given a true albino (pink eyes) which 

 had been found dead that day in the garden 

 of Dropmore Vicarage. There was the 

 slightest possible tinge of colour on part of 

 the back and flanks. It was a female, and 

 its abnormal coloration had judging by its 

 teats proved no obstacle to its rinding a 

 mate and becoming the mother of a family. 1 

 Mr. F. H. Parrott of Aylesbury has bred this 

 species freely in captivity, and before the 

 young were -born the female was observed 

 more than once to eat her fellow captives. 

 He found a winter nest containing a pair. 

 Having removed a newly born litter from a 

 female in captivity, Mr. Parrott substituted 

 the wild-caught young of the grass mouse 

 (Microtus agrestis), which she took kindly to, 

 and reared. 



[Yellow-necked Mouse. 

 Melchior. 



Mus JJavicollis, 



Years ago I remember to have been struck 

 with the large size and bright pelage of some 

 long-tailed field mice, procured at different 

 times either in part or wholly in our garden 

 at Great Marlow. These were I now sup- 

 pose of this species (?), first recorded as 

 British by Mr. W. E. de Winton in the 

 Zoologist for 1894, p. 441. One remarkably 

 large and highly coloured specimen I recol- 

 lect skinning (about 1880), and giving away 

 to serve as a doll's antimacassar, mounted on 

 cloth. Certainly however, I have met with 

 no example of this conjectured species since 

 the publication of Mr. de Winton's paper, 

 either in Bucks or elsewhere.] 



24. House Mouse. Mus musculus, Linn. 



It was perfectly astonishing how many 

 mice blind of one eye, and in a good many 



1 Zoologist, 1884, p. 226. 



1 68 



