23^ BRITISH QUADRUPEDS. 



were killed. Hollies, five or six feet high, were barked 

 round the bottom ; and, in some cases, the mice had 

 climbed the trees, and were seen feeding on the bark 

 of the upper branches. The roots were eaten through 

 wherever they obstructed the runs of the mice, but the 

 bark formed their food. 



Traps were set, poison laid, and cats turned out, yet 

 their number appeared not lessened. In some of the 

 Dean Forest plantations holes were therefore made, 

 about twenty yards asunder, and as many inches deep ; 

 they were much wider at the bottom than at the top, 

 being hollowed under, so that the animal, when once 

 in, could not easily get out again. In these holes at 

 least 30,000 mice were caught in the course of three or 

 four months ; and it was also calculated, that a much 

 greater number than this were taken out of the holes 

 after being caught, by stoats, weazels, kites, hawks, and 

 other birds and quadrupeds. 



Sometimes the mouse discovers no inconsiderable in- 

 genuity. A few years ago, for instance, the Rev. Mr. 

 North, the rector of Ashdon, in Essex, placed a pot of 

 liquid honey in a closet where there was plaster rub- 

 bish, it having been recently built. After some months, 

 he went to the closet for some honey, and was struck 

 with the appearance of a mound of rubbish, against the 



