RATS AND MICE. 



37 



them up in astonishing quantities in its underground 

 retreat. The beautiful Httle harvest mouse, though its 

 habits are perhaps equally reprehensible, is too small and 

 too rare to be a serious pest to the farmer. 



Against the character of the Shrew there is really nothing 

 to be advanced, and its least enthusiastic admirers will, at 

 all events, admit that it is perfectly harmless. Often called 

 the shrew-mouse, it is almost universally confounded with 

 the rodents to which it bears a general resemblance, and 

 is ruthlessly killed. It may be easily recognised by its long 

 tapering snout and its squared tail. 



There are several English species, and all are strictly 

 insectivorous. It has many natural enemies, and, in addition 

 to this, it seems subject to some mysterious disease which 

 kills off great numbers in the autumn. 



Nature is constantly enforcing the lesson, that when man 

 interferes too greatly with the nice balance of forces she 

 sets up, he may expect to pay the penalty, sometimes in 

 ways little anticipated by him. In certain seasons and 

 localities, special forms of life may unduly increase and be 

 with wisdom combated, but there is always a tendency to 

 proceed too far in this direction, and to extirpate when 

 more moderate measures would avail. 



MICE AS ENEMIES TO WOODLAISTDS AND 

 NURSERIES. 



DORMICE {^Myoxidce). 



Of the three kinds* of Dormice, the Common Dormouse 

 and the Garden Dormouse are more confined to the Avarmer 

 tracts of central and southern England than the Hazel 

 Dormouse, which is more frequent throughout the colder, 

 northern tracts of Europe. On the whole they closely re- 



^ These varieties of the dormouse are local ; th^re is, of course, only one dormous 

 known to British Naturalists — Muscardinus aveZlanariiis—EmroR. 



