THE HARVEST MOUSE 571 



even feathers and scraps of wool. ... I do not know whether 

 it is universally the case that the buck assists the doe Harvest 

 Mouse in the task of nest-making. But it does sometimes, 

 and it is a pretty sight to see the two working together. 

 Although the shyest of rodents, they do not seem to notice 

 the observer if he remains perfectly still and carefully refrains 

 from making any noise." 



The nest of the Harvest Mouse is built for the special 

 purpose of providing a safe and convenient nursery for the 

 young. From White's day onwards much has been written 

 about the young completely filling the nest, and consequent 

 inability of the dam to sleep in it with her babies. White 

 suggested that the dam had to open a different place in the 

 periphery of the nest in order to suckle each of the young ; 

 while Johnston thought that they might even be suckled 

 outside the nest. English says, however, that the babies get 

 proportionately as much space as would young House Mice. 



Mr Rope {op. cit., 1884, 58) remarks on the superior archi- 

 tectural skill of this mouse, which can arrange its bedding in 

 a square box in a round, compact nest resembling the spring 

 and summer nurseries. 



The Harvest Mouse appears to be, at least in summer, not 

 less prolific than other murines, giving birth to several litters 

 in each season.^ The number in a litter appears to vary between 

 five and nine, and gestation ^ is believed to last twenty-one days. 

 The young are born naked and blind, and they attain the adult 

 stature in six weeks.^ Dr H. Laver has never met with the young 

 in cornricks, "although they are said to breed there " ; he con- 

 siders the breeding season to be confined to the summer months. 



' The following are the principal observations on the number of young in a litter : — 

 Nine recorded by Pallas ; in a nest in Brittany (E. D. Gumming) ; in Lancashire, 

 M. Saul, Zoologist, 1843, 349 ; and by Gloger in Bell, ed. ii., 290. Eight by White 

 (Letter xii.) ; Bingley, 267 (September 1804) ; in nest, Sussex, L. E. Adams \in lit). 

 Seven on three occasions, D. English {op. cit, 83). Six to eight several times in 

 Suffolk, Moor, Zoologist, 1884, 190. Six or seven naked and blind in nest, Macgillivray. 

 Six in a nest lined with roots and fibres, not so compact as White's nest, but round 

 as in his description, Jenyns, Obs. Nat Hist, 73, 29th July 1826. Five, Gloger 

 in Bell, ed. ii., 290. G. W. Murdoch found two young but full-grown mice in a nest 

 and three empty nests, in Shropshire in 1872 {Zoologist, 1895, 447). 



^ J. E. Harting, Zoologist, 1895, 421, 

 J. H. Blasius, Sdugethiere Deutschlands, 329. 



