THE HARVEST MOUSE. 



THE harvest mouse is the smallest of British quadru- 

 peds. It measures two inches and a quarter from the 

 nose to the tail, and the tail two inches : two of them 

 put into a scale weighed only about the third of an 

 ounce avoirdupois. 



This small species was first brought before the notice 

 of the British naturalist, by the Rev. Gilbert White, of 

 Selbourne, in Hampshire, whose interesting account is 

 as follows : " These mice are much smaller and more 

 slender than the middle-sized domestic mouse of Bay, 

 and have more of the squirrel or dormouse colour. Their 

 belly is white. A straight line along their sides divides 

 the shades of their back and belly. They never enter 

 houses, are carried into ricks and barns with the sheaves, 

 they abound in harvest, and build their nests amidst the 

 straws of corn above ground, and sometimes in thistles. 

 They breed as many as eight in a litter, in a little 

 round nest, composed of the blades of grass or wheat. 



