Quadrupeds. 2285 



or carried away the pieces which came out of the plant, as none lay scattered about, 

 and the exterior of it bore no mark of having been used for so singular a purpose. 



Common Mouse (Mus musculus). When mice have retained possession of a rick 

 for any length of time they increase very rapidly, and destroy an almost incredible 

 quantity of grain. They not only breed during the summer months, but at intervals 

 all through the winter ; and I have seen oat-ricks housed in January and February 

 which contained young ones, apparently of various ages. Cats when catching mice 

 almost invariably seize them by the back, perhaps to prevent themselves being bitten. 

 Mice will run for a considerable distance up a perpendicular wall. They seem more 

 partial to the oat than any other grain. When getting corn into a barn, I have seen 

 as many killed as would have filled a bushel : the rick being a protection against the 

 larger predatory animals, and the mice rarely venturing from it, they have plenty of 

 food, are shielded from harm, and multiply rapidly. As the stoat preys principally on 

 this mouse, and can insert his slender body into crevices which would not admit that 

 of a cat, I think his services are very valuable about rick-yards and buildings, and that he 

 ought on no account to be destroyed : I always witness with disgust that brutal feeling 

 so commonly exhibited by many country persons, in baiting to death this and similar 

 animals, and displaying such stupidity, ignorance and prejudice, as will not allow them 

 to inquire whether the object of their chase is an animal of harm or utility. Many 

 common mice are found in corn-fields in summer, where they breed, burrowing a small 

 hole in the light pulverized soil, and again returning to habitations as winter approaches. 

 Some never leave the latter at all. I have seen them in the fields so late as Septem- 

 ber 13th, October 4th and 12th. 



Brown Rat (Mus rattus). Towards spring the common rat leaves our stacks and 

 buildings, and lives the summer through in the open fields, and many are trapped by 

 gamekeepers. They breed amongst the corn, burrowing — like the rabbit — a hole in 

 the ground, into which they draw a few bents and deposit their young. They are 

 very voracious at this period, and in lieu of corn will attack young leverets and game. 

 In the autumn they assemble together, and return to their former haunts. I was once 

 an eye-witness to an act of affection on the part of a female rat which I think worth 

 recording, more especially as this animal is considered to have little in its character to 

 recommend it. Some persons, who were cutting a field of standing barley, mowed over 

 a rat's nest full of young ones, when the dam, who was suckling them, instead of re- 

 treating remained in the nest, and, in her anxiety for their preservation, actually laid 

 so fast hold of the scythe that she was obliged to be shaken off: this nest was made 

 in a slight depression of the ground, and not on the g^und as usually is the case. I 

 have known an individual, which had been caught in a trap by his leg, bite it off and 

 effect his escape; and another to pick out the eyes, and eat the softer parts of a dead 

 companion. Some few of these rats will betake themselves entirely to the woods, 

 poaching for their livelihood, and from their wilder mode of life soon alter in appear- 

 ance : their body grows longer and more weasel-like, their hair more shaggy, the hairs 

 on their mouth longer, and altogether they assume a more ferocious and determined 

 character. The feet of some I have noticed were red. An ordinary observer would 

 suppose they were of a different species. 



Water Rat (Arvicola amphibia). There is a feature in the history of this animal 

 which I do not remember to have seen noticed by any natural historian, viz., his pro- 

 pensity to climb trees. When whitethorn bushes overhang the streams which they 



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