THE LONG-TAILED FIELD MOUSE 



try how the yellow-necked mice would behave 

 towards such a totally different kind of mouse 

 as a meadow vole, so I slipped one of these into 

 the cage. In a few minutes the male yeUow- 

 neck came out of his nest, went straight at the 

 vole, which reared up on its hind legs and 

 squeaked ; but, though voles are good fighters, 

 it was no match for the great yeUow-necked 

 mouse — ^it was knocked head over heels, and I 

 had to go to the rescue and take the poor little 

 thing away, ere it was badly hurt, for it had 

 already got a bite in the leg which was bleeding 

 freely. Luckily the vole was none the worse 

 next morning, but after that the yellow-necks 

 were allowed to do as they wished and live by 

 themselves. From the way they had behaved, 

 it was evident that they looked upon the 

 smaller long-tailed mice as distinct from them- 

 selves, as different indeed as the meadow vole. 

 Afterwards I got some long-tailed mice and 

 some yellow-necked mice to live together by 

 taking one of each sort and turning them 

 together into a new cage. Being lonely and 

 in strange surroundings they soon made friends. 

 But, though I made up five pairs in this manner, 

 and kept them together for some months, not 

 one of them had a family, which was what I 



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