HARVEST MOUSE. 289 



cise itself, apparently to its amusement and satisfaction ; 

 and it was probably from the absence of this healthful 

 exercise that Montagu failed to keep it in confinement. 

 It was observed by the Rev. \Vm. Bingley, tliat the tail 

 of this species is prehensile — a fact which has subsequently 

 been alluded to by Mr. Broderip, in the fifth volume of 

 the Zoological Journal. 



It appears to retire, like other Mice, to little burrows 

 during the winter months ; but it also remains the whole 

 of this season in ricks of corn, in which situations, accord- 

 ing to the testimony of more than one writer, it does not 

 become torpid as it does when hibernating under ground. 

 Its beautiful little round nest, of which a representation 

 is given in the vignette at the foot of this description, 

 w^as first described by White as being " most artificially 

 platted, and composed of the blades of wheat ; perfectly 

 round, and about the size of a cricket-ball, with the aper- 

 ture so ingeniously closed, that there was no discovering 

 to what part it belonged. It was so compact and well 

 filled that it would roll across the table without beino- 

 discomposed, though it contained eight little Mice that 

 were naked and blind. As this nest was perfectly full, 

 how could the dam come at her litter respectively, so as 

 to administer a teat to each ? Perhaps she opens diffe- 

 rent places for that purpose, adjusting them again when 

 the business is over : but she could not possibly be con- 

 tained in the ball with her young, which, moreover, would 

 be daily increasing in bulk. This wonderful ' procreant 

 cradle,' an elegant instance of the efforts of instinct, was 

 found in a wheat-field suspended in the head of a thistle." 

 Dr. Gloger describes its nest still more particularly ; and 

 as we have not seen his paper, we extract the following 

 account from Mr. Bennett's quotation of that naturalist's 

 observations : — 



P r 



