AMMAIS. 333 



animals that, while they fear human society, closely attend it ; 

 atid, although enemies to man, are never found but near 

 tliQse places where he has fixed his habitation. Numberless 

 v< ays have been found for destroj'ing them ; and Gesner has mi- 

 i'utely described the variety of traps by which they are taken. 

 Our Society for the Encouragement of Arts and Manufactures 

 proposed a reward for the most ingenious contrivance for that pur. 

 pose ; and I observed almost every candidate passing off descrip- 

 tions as inventions of his own. I thought it was cruel to de- 

 tect the plagiarism or frustrate the humble ambition of those who 

 would be thought the inventors of a mouse-trap. 



To this species, merely to avoid teasing the reader with a mi- 

 imte description of animals very inconsiderable and very nearly 

 alike, I will add that of the long-taxled field-mouse, which is 

 larger than the former, of a colour very nearly resembling the 

 Norway rat, and chiefly found in fields and gardens. They are 

 extremely voracious, and hurtfid in gardens and young nurseries, 

 where they are killed in great numbers. However, their fecun- 

 dity quickly repairs the destniction. 



Nearly resembling the former, but larger, (for it is six inches 

 long,) is the short-tailed field-mouse ; which, as its name 

 implies, has the tail much shorter than the former, it being not 

 above an inch and a half long, and ending in a small tuft. Its 

 colour is more inclining to that of the domestic mouse, the up- 

 per part being blackish, and the under of an ash colour. This, 

 as well as the former, are remarkable for laying up provision 

 against winter ; and Mr Buffon assures us they sometimes have 

 a store of above a Bushel at a time.* 



• The Economic Campagnol — The length of this animal is ahoutfoar Inches, 

 exclusive of the tail, which measures one inch. The limbs are etrongr ; the 

 ears short, naked, and almost hidden beneath the fur of the head. — The 

 general colour is ta\vny, somewhat whiter beneath than on the back. 



Economic Campagnols are foimd in various parts of Siberia and Kamt- 

 Bcliatka, where tbey make their burrows, with the utmost skiU, immediate- 

 ly below the surface of a soft turfy soil. They form a chamber of a flattisit 

 arched form, about a foot in diameter, to which they sometimes add twenty 

 or thirty small passages or entrances. Near the chamber they frequently 

 construct other caverns, iu which they deposit their stores or plants, which 

 tJicy gatlier in summer and bring home ; and even at times tliey bring them 

 out of their cells to give them a more thorough drying in the sun, Tlioy 

 associate in pairs ; and except durmg the summer, when the male leads a 



