418 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



THE HARVEST MOUSE. 



Mus minutus, Pallas ; Mus messorius, Shaw. 



By the Editor. 



Although spread over a great part of Europe as far as 

 Western Asia, where it was found and described by Pallas as 

 Mus minutus, the Harvest Mouse is generally reputed a species 

 of rare occurrence. Several circumstances may account for this. 

 Its very small size and the rapidity of its motions often cause it 

 to be overlooked, or to be mistaken for the young of the Long- 

 tailed Field Mouse, Mus sylvaticus. For the first published 

 account of it as indigenous to this country, we are indebted to 

 Gilbert White, although it appears to have been previously seen 

 by Montagu in Wiltshire (q/. Trans. Linn. Soc, vol. vii. p. 274). 

 White communicated his discovery to Pennant (Nat. Hist. Sel- 

 borne, Letter xiii.), who published it in the second edition of his 

 * British Quadrupeds,' and thence it has been copied with but 

 little addition by almost every writer on the subject of British 

 Mammalia. 



It has been reported from so many widely separated English 

 counties that it may be regarded, at all events, as generally 

 though locally distributed, and perhaps often overlooked, in most 

 of the midland and southern districts. In Northumberland and 

 Durham, according to Messrs. Mennell and Perkins,* there are 

 but few recorded localities for this species, but among them the 

 following is worthy of note from its great elevation. Mr. William 

 Backhouse has taken it at St. John's, Weardale, 800 feet above 

 the level of the sea.f 



In the district of the English lakes, according to Mr. Mac- 

 pherson, it is extremely rare. Many years ago a typical nest 

 was found at Blackwell, and in 1888 a specimen was secured at 

 Silloth, but these are the only two instances noted of the 

 appearance of this mouse in Lakeland. 



In Yorkshire, according to Messrs. Clarke and Roebuck, it is 

 very irregularly and thinly distributed. A specimen with the 

 nest affixed to the stems of Centaurea nigra was long preserved 



* "Catalogue of the Mammalia of Northumberland and Durham," Trang, 

 Tyneside Nat. Field Club, vol. vi. (1864), p. 171, 

 | Op. cit. vol. iv. p. 94. 



