526 MURID.E— APODEMUS 



nest is so much appreciated that acorns are carried up to them 

 from the ground. 



According to Blasius, it will bark young trees when in want, 

 a circumstance noted also by Mr Rope^ and Mr Abbey. 



A remarkable winter habit of entering disused tunnels at 

 Alderley Edge, Cheshire, to more than 150 yards from the 

 entrance, was related by Mr Oldham,^ the object, as shown 

 by the contents of their stomachs, having been to feed on 

 hibernating gnats, flies, and moths. The burrows in the 

 tunnels themselves and the food seemed to indicate that they 

 actually lived in the recesses for the time being, and became 

 entirely insectivorous, and were not merely on a visit. In a 

 case recorded by Mr Edwin Birchall ' the wings of hundreds 

 of individuals of twenty species of moths were found in a 

 small cave by the river Wharfe, near Ilkley, Yorkshire; the 

 circumstances pointed to the work of Field Mice, and on a 

 trap being set, one was caught, the mice having apparently 

 carried their prey into the cave from the adjoining woods. 

 S. Clogg, however, referred the killing of the moths to a 

 spider whose web was observed in the cave {^Zoologist, 1866, 

 105, 350, 458; 1869, 1719; 1871, 2763); while Edward New- 

 man {ibid., 1866, 386), Henry Doubleday (ibid., 1866, 387), and 

 W. F. Howlett {Journ. cit., 1871, 2802) attributed it to bats. 



Quite unlike the House and Harvest Mice, the Field Mouse 

 is rarely found in stacks of corn, and enters dwelling-houses 

 very exceptionally, wherein it appears to differ from the 

 Yellow-necked Mouse, which seems quite fond of houses.* An 

 exceptional instance was sent us by Mr C. H. Alston, 

 in whose house, at Letterawe, Loch Awe, Argyll, House 

 Mice are fortunately unknown. Their place is taken by 

 Field Mice, which seem to be now permanently in occupa- 

 tion. Unlike the House Mouse, they rarely gnaw a hole for 

 themselves, but enter the house by burrowing through crevices 

 in the stones in the foundations, and then creep up through 

 small cracks in the floors, and thus get inside the partitions. 

 Its destructiveness is increased by its provident habit of 



1 Op. cit., 204. ' Zoologist, 1900, 421. 3 Ibid., 1866, 8, 284. 



* Mr Adams informs us that he has caught these mice 'frequently in cellars and 

 outhouses ; on one occasion he found some in a stack. 



