THE HARVEST MOUSE 555 



given by Pallas, most of the older writers hesitated to assert, though 

 some like Shaw and Montagu suspected, the identity of the western 

 Harvest Mouse with that of Russia and Siberia. Another cause of 

 the multiplication of names is found in the great variability (dependent 

 in part upon season, age, and sex, and in part, perhaps, upon the 

 individual) of the animal itself. Boie in 1823 appears to have been 

 the first to ascribe western specimens to M. minutus ; his material 

 came from Schleswig-Holstein, and he pointed out that the British 

 M. messorius, Pennant, was probably a synonym. In 1827 A. Brants 

 referred Dutch material to M. minutus, and although M. messorius, 

 soricinus, and pendulinus figured in his book as distinct species (because 

 specimens were lacking), he expressed his opinion as to their probable 

 identity with M. minutus very clearly. 



It cannot be pretended, however, that the material at our disposal 

 is sufficient to enable us to form any very sound opinion as to the 

 extent of the geographical variation of this species, nor even as to the 

 status of the few sub-species at present recognised. Such material as 

 exists is for the most part hardly mature, and there are few 

 specimens, even of the British form, which can, from a skull point of 

 view, be regarded as more than adolescent. Further collection may 

 therefore very well cause certain of the names now relegated to the 

 synonymy to be revived and used for the designation of sub-species in 

 the future. 



Terminology : — The Harvest Mouse is the Mus minimus of White 

 (cited above) ; the " less long-tailed Field-Mouse " of Pennant {Brit. 

 Zool, 1768, ii., 498) and Berkenhout (1769). In all later works from 

 Pennant (1776) to MillaJs (1905) it appears as the "Harvest Mouse," 

 occasionally as the " Harvest Rat," so that there can be no serious 

 question as to its correct designation, although the name is not now so 

 appropriate as in the days of hand-reaping, when the species was much 

 more frequently encountered at harvest-time. 



Local names (non-Celtic) : — Harvest Mouse generally ; Red Ranny 

 of Essex (Laver, MS^. 



(Celtic) :— Not usually distinguished. Welsh — Llygoden yr yd 

 =" Corn-Mouse." 



History :— The discovery of the Harvest Mouse in Britain appears 

 to have been made independently by Gilbert White, in Hampshire, 

 and Montagu, in Wiltshire. White, in his tenth letter to Pennant, 

 dated 4th August 1767, alludes to a previous conversation on 

 the subject (" which I mentioned to you in town "). Montagu 

 (1767) has claimed {Trans. Linn. Soc, vii., 274, 1803) priority for 

 his discovery, but White's very accurate, and, for the date, complete 

 account of the animal (Letter xii. to Pennant, 4th November 

 1767; xiii., 22nd January 1768; xv., 30th March 1768 ("Linnaeus, 



