THE RED-BACKED MEADOW MOUSE 



'^37 



So sings the poet ; but what sings the gar- 

 dener ? Ninety per cent, of the injury 

 done in })lantations and gardens by mice 

 is the joint work of the Long-tailed Field 



THE 



RED-BACKED 

 CLEAxNING 



MEADOW MOUSE 

 HIS TAIL. 



Mouse and the Red- backed Meadow 

 Mouse. 



Both species prefer made ground, both 

 species are prolific, and both species are 

 voracious. It would be idle to attempt to 

 enumerate the plants they have a Hking for, 

 and little that they fancy, either above 

 ground or below, will escape them. To reach 

 the first they clamber, to reach the second 

 they burrow or drill. Moreover, being 

 provident little beasts, they 

 guard against contingencies of 

 weather by making stores. 

 Hence the small tell-tale heaps 

 of earth from end to end of 

 the pea-row. 



Yet, even from the gardener's 

 point of view, a few points 

 may be urged in their favour. 

 They are persistent consumers 

 of moths, caterpillars, grubs, 

 and snails, and in this respect 

 undoubtedly do him service. 



A passage quoted by ]\Iillais 

 " from a gardening paper " 

 pretends an even higher claim. 

 It shows how hyacinths may Ix? 

 increased, and runs as follows : — 



" The Dutch growers were 

 helped out of the difficulty of 

 rapid reproduction, like the 



captive lion of fabled history, by a mouse. 

 It was observed that certain hyacinths 

 here and there, instead of blossoming in 

 the ordinary course, made innumerable 

 bulblets — hundreds, indeed — and in a 

 few years these hundreds came to per- 

 fection and blossomed with the best. 

 This led to an examination of the bulbs 

 as soon as it was noticed that they 

 were not by way of flowering. The in- 

 spection disclosed the fact that the bulbs 

 had been gnawed to the heart by mice. 

 So now the way to increase a valuable 

 hyacinth is to take a knife and slash into 

 its very heart with innumerable cross- 

 cuts and plant it in the ordinary way." 



I have myself noticed a remarkable 

 increase of snowdrops in a mouse-infected 

 shmbbery, but whether it is due to the 

 kind ofhces of the mice I have not been 

 able to determine. 



In conclusion, some notes as to the 

 colour and size and attitudes of the Red- 

 backed Meadow Mouse may be of interest. 

 " Red-backed " is a good general descrip- 

 tion, as the upper surface of their coat is 

 a rich chestnut-red in the warm months, 

 and decidedly reddish in winter. It is 

 probable that a high mean annual tem- 

 perature means a redder, and a low mean 

 annual temperature a greyer coloration ; 

 and this appears to be the case with the 

 closely-allied American species, which 

 have been carefully studied. The under 

 surface ranges from cream colour to buff- 



THE 



MATERIALS LSI-I) IS LINING THE NEST 

 KED-BACKED MEADOW MOUSE. 

 The grass stems are bitten into short lengths and spht 

 in the process. 



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