616 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



when the surrounding shrubs and bushes are plundered of their 

 fruits and denuded of their bark. In this store-house the animal 

 conceals quantities of hips and other provisions, among which are 

 found numbers of cherry-stones. 



The summer nest is of entirely a different construction, being 

 placed above ground, though tolerably well concealed. The fol- 

 lowing account of it, by Mr. J. J. Briggs, appeared originally in 

 the Field newspaper. "No wonder that in districts where they 

 are difficult to keep down they increase with rapidity, for, like 

 the common Mouse, they are prolific breeders. I have found 

 nests of this mouse in almost every week from the end of May to 

 the middle of August, and each containing from one to ten young, 

 usually from five to seven. The young look poor helpless creat- 

 ures, being both blind and naked. They leave the nest in about 

 a month, but remain with their parents for some time afterward. 



" The nest is placed on the ground in a pasture or meadow ; a 

 field of mowing grass is preferred, but I have found it among 

 corn, where the long herbage affords the coveted quiet and con- 

 cealment ; but when the crop is cut the nest is laid bare, and the 

 young frequently fall a prey to hawks and other depredators. 

 The nest is built in a little hollow on the surface of the earth, 

 just concealed at the bottom of the stems of grass. If you pull 

 it out it looks like a lump of herbs or flax, being composed of 

 numerous small pieces of grass nibbled to a fine texture with care 

 by the parent animals. 



"I have taken up dozens of nests to examine, but in no single 

 instance could I ever find an entrance to the interior. How the 

 parents gain admittance to it seems extraordinary. This remark 

 applies to the nest of the White-bellied Field-mouse, and White, 

 of Selborne, notices the same fact with reference to the harvest- 

 mouse. How the young are suckled seems marvelous, unless the 

 conjecture be correct that the female opens a fresh aperture in 

 the nest each time she visits her young, and closes it again when 

 she departs. 



" The parents show considerable affection for their young. If 

 a nest be exposed by the mower they do not desert it, but, on the 

 contrary, endeavor to conceal it from observation as well as they 

 can by drawing round it the neighboring grasses and plants." 



The same writer remarks that he has several times caught the 

 Short-tailed Field-mouse in the hedges while "bat -fowling" at 

 night for small birds. He has also found that when the Mouse 



