HABITS OF THE LONG-TAILED PIELD MOUSE. 208 



flexible, brownish grey above, whitish below ; rather less than 

 half the entire length of the animal, but varying considerably in 

 this respect. The colour of the upper parts varies in different 

 individuals, some showing but little of the yellow tint. The young 

 are much greyer than the adults. Fatio (' Faune des Vertebres 

 de la Suisse') states that he has remarked considerable variation 

 in the shape and extent of the yellow pectoral spot in Swiss 

 examples, some having it so produced as to form a complete 

 collar, while in others he has found it entirely absent. 



Albinos now and then occur in this country, an instance of 

 which will be found recorded in ' The Field,' Jan. 18th, 1873, by 

 Mr. H. De F. Cox ; and in ' The Zoologist,' June, 1884, p. 226, 

 Mr. A. H. Cocks, describing an albino variety picked up dead in 

 the garden of Dropmore Vicarage, near Great Marlow, Bucks, 

 says, " It was a true albino, the eyes being pink ; there was the 

 slightest possible tinge of colour on part of the back and flanks. 

 It was a female ; and its unusual colour had — from the look of 

 the teats — proved no obstacle to its finding a mate, and becoming 

 the mother of a famil3\" According to Lord Clermont (' Quad- 

 rupeds and Keptiles of Europe'), varieties occur of white, brown, 

 and dull yellow, the belly, however, being always white. 



The large and well-developed ears appear capable of detecting 

 the slightest sound, and twitch convulsively at a chirp or 

 whistle so faint as to be barely audible to human ears. The 

 sense of smell, too, is probably well developed, and is doubtless 

 the principal guide to the whereabouts of food — accounting 

 for the great readiness with which corn, seed, bulbs, &c., are 

 discovered, whether in the ground or stored in outhouses. 



This species, according to my experience of its habits in this 

 neighbourhood, does not, like M. viusculus and M. messorius, 

 inhabit stacks of corn, nor have I ever succeeded in finding a 

 single individual of the Field Vole, Arvicola agrestis, either in a 

 granary or a stack of any kind, though the latter animal is said by 

 Bell to frequent such situations. A few may be carried in now and 

 then at harvest time among the sheaves of corn, but must either 

 soon die or else make their escape; for, setting aside rats, the little 

 rodents found often in such immense numbers when the corn is 

 threshed are all (with the exception of a small but varying pro- 

 portion of Harvest Mice) of one species, viz., Mus musculus. 

 Doubtless the habits of this little animal would vary a good deal 



