206 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



seemed to have hardlj' any cessation of suckling, he says, " So 

 fast did the young attach themselves that the females could 

 scarcely move without pulling two or three after them." Although 

 the present species does not estahlish itself permanently in the 

 dwellings of man, after the manner of that pretty and amusing 

 little pilferer the common House Mouse, I have known several 

 instances of its having been caught in houses ; and it often visits 

 dairies for the sake of the milk, of which it is particularly fond. 

 One which had escaped from its cage here was caught a fortnight 

 afterwards in the same room, looking as sleek and well as ever. 



I have on two separate occasions, in July and November, seen 

 this little animal among the tall marram-grass on the sea-beach 

 between Dunwich and Sizewell, on the Suffolk coast. Nests of 

 the Harvest Mouse, M. messorius, have also been found on the 

 beach at Kessingland, a few miles farther to the north, as recorded 

 in Mr. Southwell's ' Mammalia and Reptilia of Norfolk.' The 

 never-failing supplies of food cast up or left bai'e by the waves, 

 as is well known, attract to the sea-coast various creatures other 

 than those of purely littoral habits. Possibly, however, these 

 beach-mice, instead of deriving the principal part of their food 

 directl}' from that source, may subsist chiefly on the seeds of this 

 grass and of the various plants growing on that wild and un- 

 cultivated tract. The beach being cut off at this spot from 

 cultivated soil by a wide belt of marshes, ill adapted to the 

 requirements of these animals, it seems probable that they 

 may be permanent residents there. Rats, Rabbits, and a few 

 Hares frequent the place ; and even Weasels and Stoats in small 

 numbers here find a temporary refuge from their relentless enemies 

 the keepers. 



Long-tailed Field Mice and Bank Voles, Arvicola rufescens, 

 often make use of the same runs, and in trying to procure 

 specimens of the latter I have frequently been balked by the 

 Field Mice, which spring the traps and imprison themselves with 

 the greatest readiness. They are particularly abundant here, 

 and on going out at night with a lantern are sometimes to be 

 seen bounding along in their peculiar zigzag and erratic manner. 

 Their leaping mode of progression occasioned by the comparative 

 length and power of the hinder limbs, and in fact the appearance 

 in general of these mice, reminds one of the Kangaroos, or perhaps 

 even more so of their near relatives the Gerboas. When moving 



