3610 The Zoologist — Jdly, 1873. 



killed), and a great quantity of feathers ; both the lark and the 



mouse had had a bite at the back of the skull. 



G. T. Rope. 



Leiston, Suffolk, March, 1873. 



mice in East Snifolk. — The beautiful little harvest mouse {Mus messorins, 

 Shaw), though I believe nowhere very numerous, is not uncommon in this 

 part of Suffolk. I have met with it in several different localities, — at Ged- 

 grave near Orford, at Blaxhall, and at Leiston, — and I once found a nest at 

 Washbrook, near Ipswich. Mr. Southwell (Zool. S. S. 2756) mentions the 

 nest of this species having been taken from among the tall sedges by the 

 side of the Waveney, and also at Kessingland, among the marram-grass on 

 the beach. This and the common house mouse (M. niuscidus) — only the 

 latter, of course, in sufficient numbers to be of any consequence — are the 

 only species which are here found in stacks of corn, when threshed out, 

 excepting perhaps a stray longtailed field mouse {M. syJvaticus) or two. I do 

 not recollect ever seeing an example of the short-tailed field vole in a stack 

 of corn of any kind, for although a few may occasionally be carried in at 

 harvest time, I do not think it lilcely they would remain there ; nor have 

 I ever met with them in barns, granaries or buildings of any kind, although 

 most writers on the subject have accused them of doing much damage in 

 such situations ; their habits and the nature of their food seem to me to 

 make it very unlikely that they should take up their abode there. I fancy 

 this little animal has had more than its due share of abuse, for though 

 exceedingly numerous as a species, it is certainly far less injurious to the 

 farmer (at all events in this neighbourhood) than either M. musculus or 

 M. sylvaticus, however destructive it may be to young trees and shrubs. 

 The longtailed field mouse is well known to he a great consumer of seed- 

 corn when first put in the ground, and also of the ripe wheat at hai'vest time, 

 remaining in the field till the stubble is ploughed, when numbers are turned 

 out of their burrows by the plough. When the corn is all housed the " long- 

 tail" resigns his claim to it, and his congeners, M. rattus and M. musculus, 

 carry on the work of destruction. I have at different times kept many 

 meadow mice {A. agrestis) in^ confinement, and can speak from experience 

 as to grass and the leaves of various plants forming a large proportion, if 

 not the bulk, of their food, though I have occasionally found ears of corn in 

 their runs : they are very numerous in some places, where it is quite im- 

 possible for them to have access to corn of any kind ; for instance, small 

 islands consisting entirely of pasture-laud ; and I might mention, by way of 

 example, that long strip of beach extending from Aldeburgh to the mouth 

 of the river, having water on both sides of it, where they abound and attain 

 a very large size. I have on more than one occasion taken the bank vole 



