ANIMALS. 335 



may be considered rather as a friend than an enemy. It lias a 

 strong, disagreeable smell, so that the eat, when it is killed, will 

 refuse to eat it. It is said to bring four or five young at a time. 



THE DORMOUSE.* 



These animals may be distinguished into three kinds; the 

 GREATER DoajiousE, which Mr Buffon calls the loir; the 



• In the system of nature this forms a distinct genus, of wliich there aro 

 four species, tlie Fat, the Wood, the Garden, and the Common Dormouse. 



The Wood- Mouse of Shaw, Field-Rat of Pennant, or Muht of Buffon, 

 (Mus Sijloaticus, Lin.) is in general under five inclies long, and the tail is 

 rather less, but it varies considerably in dimensions. Its colour is very 

 dark, yellomsh-ljrown, ivliitish on the under part ; the tail is daik-brown 

 above, and dirty- white underneath ; but as it varies in size, and is an inhabi 

 tant of a large portion of the earth, so it also varies in coloiir. Its head is both 

 thicker and larger, comparatively with the body, than that of the Rat ; the 

 eyes are very large and prominent ; the ears are large ; and the animal 

 stands higher than the rat. The Mulot or Wood-Mouse is found through, 

 out Europe, and, though rarely, in Russia. It is a very destructive little 

 animal, as its habits induce it, like the Squirrel, to lay up a large store of 

 winter provision, consisting of nuts, acorns, com, &c. These animals mul- 

 tiply occasionally to an extraordinary degree.and become great pests by tliei! 

 predatory and wasteful habits 



The Harvest- Mouse, {Mus Messorius, White) is probably the smallest of 

 British quadriipeds, the body not exceeding two inches and a quarter in 

 length, and the tail two inches ; and the weight is said to be about one-sixth 

 of an ounce. Either tliis species is exclusively British, or it has hitherto 

 escaped tlie industrious researches of the continental naturalists, for it is 

 doubtful whether it can be identified with the Mus Pendulinus of Hermann. 



Mr White, in his history of Selboum, first made this species known to tlie 

 public. 



" These mice (he says) are much smaller and moie slender than the mus 

 domesticus medius of Ray, and have more of tlie squirrel or dormouse 

 colour ; their belly is white ; a straight line along their sides divides tlu; 

 shades of their back and belly. They never enter into houses ; are ciirricj 

 into ricks and barns with the slieaves ; abound in harvest, and build tlieir 

 nest amidst the straws of corn above ground, and sometimes in thistles. 

 Tliey breed as many as eight at a litter, in a little brown nest, composed of 

 blades of grass or wheat. The nest is most artificially plaited, and composed 

 of the blades of wheat, perfectly round, and about the size of a cricket-ball, 

 witli the aperture so ingeniously closed, that there is no discovering to wliat 

 part it belongs. It is so compact and well fitted, that it will roll across a table 

 \vithout being discomposed, though it contained eight little mice, which an 

 naked and bUnd. As the nest is perfectly full, how could the dam," asks 

 Mr Wliite,"come at her litter respectively, so as to administer a teat to each? 

 Perhaps she opens different places for that purpose, adjusting them again 

 when the business is over; but she could not possibly be contained herseh 



