HOW TO KNOW THE WILD ANIMALS 



By DOUGLAS ENGLISH, B.A., F.R.P.S. 

 Author of '"Wee Tim'rous Beasties," etc. 



THE HARVEST MOUSE 



With Photographs by the Author 



THE Field Mouse is a handsome, well- 

 bred gallant, the Dormouse a soft, 

 comfy, round-eyed ball ; but, for 

 the dainty grace 

 of Dresden china, 

 give me the Har- 

 vest ]\Iouse. 



It is an un- 

 kind fate which 

 makes him, of 

 all our Mice, the 

 least likely to be 

 casually encoun- 

 tered. Not that 

 he is more noc- 

 turnal, for he 

 loves the sun- 

 shine ; not that 

 he is inconspic- 

 uous, for he is 

 white and 

 orange ; not that 

 he is shy, for, 

 like most small 

 things, he is 



pushful. The secret may be summed up 

 shortly : the Harvest Mouse is inaccessible. 



Those who would see him often must 

 either take up quarters in a corn-stack, 

 or roam at large among the growing 

 crops, both of which schemes are incon- 

 venient. 



Moreover, they must choose a likely 

 county. The distribution of the Harvest 

 Mouse (and of the Dormouse) is of curious 

 interest. For the moment we must con- 

 fine ourselves to the former. His breeding 

 season is a short one — say mid-June to 

 mid-September. My own records give 

 July 1st as the earliest date of a litter, 

 and August 31st as the latest. 



His nest is an exposed one, frequently 



THE HA^^^ MOUSE SUPPORTED BY HIND FEET 

 AND TAIL AFTER RUNNING UP A CORNSTALK. 



built in the standing corn, and rarely in 

 the hedgerow. 



It is obvious that, for the welfare of 

 the young, warm 

 dry surroundings 

 are essential, and 

 it is almost start- 

 ling to compare 

 the recorded dis- 

 tribution of the 

 Harvest Mouse 

 with the July- 

 August rainfall. 



The two - inch 

 rainfall contour 

 for July stretches 

 roughly from 

 S h e p p e y to 

 Worthing, and I 

 regard the coun- 

 try east of this as 

 the headquarters 

 of the Harvest 

 Mouse and the 

 starting point of 

 his distribution. That for August has its 

 north end near Lowestoft, describes a 

 curve whose most westerly point is some- 

 where near Gravesend, and sweeps back 

 to the sea through Romney Marsh. 



The three-inch lines are more irregular, 

 and should be studied on the map. 



All the counties in Great Britain from 

 which the Harvest Mouse has been cer- 

 tainly recorded are wholly or partially 

 included between these two-inch and 

 three-inch lines. 



It is extremely interesting to note 

 records in tliis connection from Banff, 

 Kincardine, Cheshire, and Cornwall, and 

 to find how few counties there are with 

 a July-August rainfall of less than three 



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