THE HAETEST MOUSK 196 



ruddy hue of the back and the white of the abdomen. More- 

 over, the ears of the Harvest Mouse are shorter in proportion 

 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 sufiBce to tell the observer whether he is look- 

 ing 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 baU- 

 like mass, in the middle of which the yoimg are placed. I have 

 seen many of these nests, and only once have known an excep- 

 tion to the rule, when the mouse had made its nest of empty 

 and broken nutshells. The Harvest Mouse, however, surpasses 

 all its congeners in the beauty and elegance of its home, which 

 is not only constructed with remarkable neatness, but is sus- 

 pended 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 another how they are 

 fed. The walls are so thin that an object 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. As there is no defined openiug, and as the walls 

 are so loosely woven, it is probable that the mother is able to 

 push her way between the meshes, and so to arrange or feed 

 her young. 



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 cUnging with the curved claws 



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