34 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



shape, size, and manner of nesting, I make no doubt but that 

 the species is nondescript. They are much smaller, and 

 more slender, than the Mus domesticus medius of Ray ; 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 into houses; 

 are carried into ricks and barns with the sheaves abound 

 in harvest ; and build their nests amidst the straws of the 

 corn above the ground, and sometimes in thistles. They 

 breed as many as eight at a litter, in a little round nest 

 composed of the blades of grass or wheat. 



One of these nests I procured this autumn, most arti- 

 ficially platted, and composed of the blades of wheat, 

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

 the aperture so ingeniously closed, that there was no dis- 

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

 well filled, that it would roll across the table without being 

 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 ad- 

 minister 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 

 herself 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. 



A gentleman, curious in birds, wrote me word that his 

 servant had shot one last January, in that severe weather, 

 which he believed would puzzle me. I called to see it this 

 summer, not knowing what to expect, but the moment I 

 took it in hand, I pronounced it the male Garrulus bohemi- 

 CUS) or German silk-tail, from the five peculiar crimson tags 



