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Quadrupeds. 



me without fear. I found they drank a considerable quantity of water, and much pre- 

 ferred flies and other insects to grain : thus proving that they are not strictly granivo- 

 rous animals. There is a peculiar grace and elegance in the attitudes of these little 

 animals, particularly when cleaning themselves, and in climbing about the cage ; and 

 in the latter operation I observed that they frequently coiled the end of their tails round 

 a wire, for the purpose of securing their hold. When suddenly startled, they often 

 rested themselves on their hind feet, and raised the body in a listening attitude, and, 

 after taking a survey of surrounding objects, either precipitately retreated to the inte- 

 rior of the cage, or resumed their accustomed attitude, according to the effect the sud- 

 den fright had upon them. The nests of these mice I have frequently found, and very 

 neat and compact they are; there is no visible aperture whatever, and it is still a ques- 

 tion how the mother contrives to give each of her young the necessary sustenance, as 

 the litter, even when quite young, very nearly fill the whole space in the nest, and af- 

 ter a little time they completely fill it. It was the opinion of White that the parent 

 mouse opened the nest at different parts, and so afforded nourishment to each one of 

 her offspring, taking care to close all safely again. The nests are usually very inge- 

 niously suspended from two or three stalks of corn, and are perfectly round. — L. Pem- 

 berton Bartlett ; Kingston, near Canterbury, July 28, 1843. 



Note on the Habits of the Harvest-mouse in conjinement. " About the middle of 

 September, 1804, I had a female harvest-mouse given to me by Mrs. Campbell, of 

 Chewton House, Hants. It had been put into a dormouse cage, immediately when 

 caught, and a few days afterwards produced eight young ones. I entertained some 

 hopes that the little animal would have nursed these, and brought them up ; but having 

 been disturbed in her removal, about four miles, from the country, she began to destroy 

 them, and I took them from her. The young ones, at the time I received them (not 

 more than two or three days old) must have been at least equal in weight to the mother. 

 " After they were removed, she soon became reconciled to her situation, and, when 

 there was no noise. Would venture to come out of her hiding-place, at the extremity of 

 the cage, and climb about among the wires of the open part before me. In doing this 

 I remarked that her tail was, in some measure, 'prehensile ; and that, to render her 

 hold the more secure, she generally coiled the extremity of it round one of the wires. 

 The toes of all the feet were particularly long and flexile, and she could grasp the 

 wires very firmly with any of them. She frequently rested on her hind-feet, somewhat 

 in the manner of the jerboa, for the purpose of looking about her; and in this attitude 

 could extend her body, at such an angle as at first greatly surprised me. She was a 

 beautiful little animal, and her various attitudes in cleaning her face, head and body, 

 with her paws, were peculiarly graceful and elegant. For a few days after I received 

 this mouse, I neglected to give it any water; but when I afterwards put some into 

 the cage, she lapped it with great eagerness. After lapping, she always raised herself 

 on her hind feet, and cleaned her head with her paws. 



" She continued, even till the time of her death, exceedingly shy and timid ; but 

 whenever I put into the cage any favorite food, such as grains of wheat or maize, she 

 would eat them before me. On the least noise or motion, however, she immediately 

 ran off, with the grain in her mouth, to her hiding-place. 



" One evening, as I was sitting at my writing-desk, and the animal was playing 

 about in the open part of its cage, a large blue-fly happened, to buzz against the wires. 

 The little creature, although twice or thrice the distance of her own length from it, 

 sprang along the wires with the greatest agility, and would certainly have seized it, 



