MAMMALS 



and are also found in the large woods near 

 Radley. The summer nests are as a rule 

 made in hedges and bushes, while the winter, 

 or sleeping nest, is on the ground among the 

 stems of bushes. Often an old bird's nest is 

 used, the lining being pulled out and very 

 ingeniously inverted. The sleeping nests are 

 lined with moss. In the first warm days of 

 spring the dormice, like the hedgehogs, are 

 more likely to be seen moving in the daytime 

 than at any other period of the year. They 

 are the squirrels of the hedgerows, wonderfully 

 swift and active, and able to leap considerable 

 distances. The young are born at the end of 

 April, and hibernation begins not later than 

 the end of October. 



20. Harvest Mouse. Mus minutus, Pallas. 

 Invisible itself, this, the smallest of all our 



rodents except the water shrew, is known to 

 be fairly common because its nest is found by 

 the reapers in the corn. At Childrey, where 

 the old method of cutting the crops with a 

 ' fagging hook ' and a crooked stick to gather 

 the stems together was employed till recently, 

 the chance of finding the nest of the harvest 

 mouse was always present. Several of these 

 little woven balls have been brought to the 

 writer, but the owner always escaped. There 

 was in no case any hole or door. 



21. Wood Mouse, or Long-tailed Field 



Mouse. Mus sylvaticus, Linn. 

 This mouse is common in all the woodland 

 districts, where it is often seen by day, espe- 

 cially in early spring. 



22. House Mouse. Mus musculus, Linn. 



This little pest tends to decrease, owing to 

 the building of a superior class of cottage, and 

 to the great reduction in the area of corn 

 grown, for the corn-stacks were the main 

 strongholds of mice. 



23. Brown Rat. Mus decumanus, Pallas. 



The rat plague, very general in the eastern 

 counties during the first four years of the cen- 

 tury, did not affect Berkshire. On the con- 

 trary, the decrease of corn cultivation, which 

 formerly drew rats to the downs to feed on 

 grain and live in the stacks, and the pulling 

 down of numbers of old rat-infested barns in 

 which the threshed grain was stored, has 

 greatly reduced their numbers. In the vale, 

 where there is heavy arable land, as for in- 

 stance round Steventon, they still frequent 

 the bean stacks in great numbers. But in 

 North Berkshire the rat-catcher has almost 

 ceased to exist as a local institution. 



24. Black Rat. Mus rattus, Linn. 



The species has not been recorded of late 

 years. 



25. Field Vole. Microtus agrestis, Linn. 



Bell Arvicola agrestis. 



Far more common in the meadows of the 

 Kennet and Lambourn valleys than in those 

 near the Thames. 



26. Bank Vole. Evotomys glaredus, Schreber. 



Bell Arvicola glaredus. 

 Found everywhere ; perhaps its favourite 

 haunts being in the sides of the railway em- 

 bankments. 



27. Water Vole or Water Rat. Microtus 



amphibius, Linn. 



Bell Arvicola ampbibius. 

 This interesting creature is common 

 throughout the county, especially by the 

 Thames, the old canals, such as that running 

 up the White Horse Valley, now partly dis- 

 used, and the chalk streams up the Kennet 

 and Lambourn valleys. On the Thames the 

 main summer food of the water rats is the pith 

 of the giant rush. In the evening, if any one 

 sits quietly by a rush bed, he will hear a crisp 

 rending and tearing noise. It is the water 

 rats making their supper off the great rushes. 

 They climb a rush, cut it off, and let the 

 stem fall among the other rushes. They 

 then descend, climb on to the rush, which 

 is as thick as a walking stick, and cut it 

 into lengths. Usually they have a rough 

 platform, like a nest, to which they take the 

 lengths, which they then peel longitudinally 

 and eat the pith. The severed rushes will be 

 noticed in quantities if any one backs a boat 

 in among them. They also cut off the young 

 shoots of willows, which they peel, often sit- 

 ting in the bush while they are so engaged. 

 In winter they partly hibernate. 



28. Common Hare. Lepus europtsus, Pallas. 



Bell Lepus timidus. 



The downs are ideal places for hares, and 

 these were formerly preserved there in great 

 numbers, especially on the estates of the Earl 

 of Craven, Mr. Wroughton of Woolley, and 

 other large proprietors. At present the only 

 notable hare-grounds on the North Berks 

 Downs are the Lockinge and Woolley estates. 

 The hares live much in the woods just after 

 harvest, but later come out into the open 

 fields, shifting their ground according to the 

 wind. Hare drives are common on the Lock- 

 inge property, and at Woolley, and as many 



