ci8 STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



bright ruddy hue of the back and the white of the abdomen. 

 Moreover, the ears of the Harvest Mouse are shorter in pro- 

 portion than those of the ordinary mouse, the head is larger 

 and more slender, and the eyes are not so projecting, so that a 

 very brief inspection will suffice to tell the observer whether he 

 is looking at an adult Harvest Mouse, or a young specimen of 

 any other species. 



Mice always make very comfortable nests for their young, 

 gathering together great quantities of wool, rags, paper, hair, 

 moss, feathers, and similar substances, and rolling them into a 

 ball-like mass, in the middle of which the young are placed. 

 The Harvest Mouse, however, surpasses all its congeners in 

 the beauty and elegance of its home, which is not only con- 

 structed with remarkable neatness, but is suspended above the 

 ground in such a manner as to entitle it to the name of a true 

 pensile nest. Generally, it is hung to several stout grass-stems; 

 sometimes it is fastened to wheat- straws ; and in one case, 

 mentioned by Gilbert White, it was suspended from the head 

 of a thistle. 



It is a very beautiful structure, being made of very narrow 

 grasses, and woven so carefully as to form a hollow globe, 

 rather larger than a cricket-ball, and very nearly as round. 

 How the little creature contrives to form so complicated an 

 object as a hollow sphere with thin walls is still a problem. It 

 is another problem how the young are placed in it, and anotlier 

 how they are fed. The walls are so thin that anything inside 

 the nest can be easily seen from any part of the exterior ; there 

 is no opening whatever, and when the young are in the nest 

 they are packed so tightly that their bodies press against the 

 wall in every direction. 



The position of the nest, which is always at some little height, 

 presupposes a climbing power in the architect. All mice and 

 rats are good climbers, being able to scramble up perpendicular 

 walls, provided that their surfaces be rough, and even to lower 

 themselves head downwards by clinging with the curved claws 

 of their hind feet. It is also a noticeable fact, that the joint of 

 the hind foot is so losely articulated that it can be turned nearly 



