118 FIELD MOUSE. Class I. 



an ochre color; the rest of the under side is white ; 

 the tail is covered with short hair. 

 Manners, These animals are found only in fields and 

 gardens ; in some places they are called bean- 

 mice, from the havoke they make among beans 

 when first sown. They feed also on nuts, acorns, 

 and corn, forming in their burrows vast maga- 

 zines of winter provision. 



Saepe exiguus mus 

 Sub terris posuitque domos atque horrea fecit. 

 Virgil. Georg. I. 181. 



Often the little mouse 

 Illudes our hopes; and safely lodged below 

 Hath formed his granaries. 



Doctor Derham takes notice of this wonderful 

 sagacity of theirs, in providing against that sea- 

 son when they would find a defect of food abroad ; 

 but they provide also for other animals : the 

 hog comes in for a share, and the great damage 

 we sustain in our fields, by their rooting up the 

 ground, is chiefly owing to their search after the 

 concealed hoards of the field mice. 



They generally make the nest for their young 

 very near the surface, and often in a thick tuft 

 of grass ; they bring from seven to ten at a time. 



