HARVEST MOUSE. 45 



remark, that though they hang their nests for 

 breeding up amidst the straws of the standing corn, 



for some time kept alive in his possession. " About the 

 middle of September, 1804, I had a female harvest mouse 

 given to me. It was put into a dormouse cage imme- 

 diately when caught, and a few days afterwards produced 

 eight young ones. I entertained some hope that the little 

 animal would have nursed these, and brought them up, but 

 having been disturbed in her removal, about four miles 

 from the country, she began to destroy them, and I took 

 them from her. The young ones, at the time I received 

 them, (not more than two or three days old,) must have 

 been at least equal in weight to the mother. After they 

 were removed, she became reconciled to her situation ; and 

 when there was no noise, would venture to come out of her 

 hiding-place at the extremity of the cage, and climb about 

 among the wires of the open part before me. In doing 

 this, I remarked that her tail was prehensile, and that, to 

 render her hold the more secure, she generally coiled the 

 extremity of it round one of the wires. The toes of all the 

 feet were particularly long and flexile, and she could grasp 

 the wires very firmly with any of them. She frequently 

 rested on her hind feet, somewhat in the manner of the 

 jerboa, for the purpose of looking about her ; and, in this 

 attitude, could extend her body at such an angle as at first 

 greatly surprised me. She was a beautiful little animal, 

 and her various attitudes, in cleaning her face, head, and 

 body, with her paws, were peculiarly graceful and elegant. 

 For a few days after I received this mouse, I neglected to 

 give it any water ; but when I afterwards put some into the 

 cage, she lapped it with great eagerness. After lapping, 

 she always raised herself on her hind feet, and cleaned her 

 head with her paws. She continued, even till the time of 

 her death, exceedingly shy and timid, but whenever I put 

 into the cage any favourite food, such as grains of wheat, or 

 maize, she would eat them before me. On the least noise 

 or motion, however, she immediately ran off, with the grains 

 in her mouth, to her hiding-place. One evening, as I was 

 sitting at my writing-desk, and the animal was playing 

 about in the open part of its cage, a large blue fly happened 

 to buzz against the wires ; the little creature, although at 

 twice or thrice the distance of her own length from it, 

 sprang along the wires with the greatest agility, and would 



