62 



HARVEST MOUSE. 



posits in the end or chamber of its burrow. It is 

 found of a much larger size in the cultivated re- 

 gions about the river Ob and Jenesei than else- 

 where. In general it is rather less than the field 

 mouse^ and is of a ferruginous colour above, and 

 whitish beneath : on the back is a dusky line : the 

 head is oblong, the nose sharp^ and the ears 

 small and lined with fur : above each foot is a 

 dusky circle^ and the tail is only half the length 

 of the body. 



HARVEST MOUSE. 



Mus Messorius. M. supra ferrugineus, subius albus, cauda 



longa subpilosa, auriculis vellere longioribus. 

 Ferruginous Mouse, white beneath, with long slightly hairy tail, 



and ears longer than the fur of the head. 

 Harvest Mouse. Pennant Quadr. 2. p. 384. 



Brit, ZooL i. p. loj. 

 White's Selb. p. 33 and 39. 



This small species seems to have escaped the 

 notice of British naturalists till it was observed by 

 the late Mr. Gilbert White, of Selburne, in 

 Hampshire, in which county it is frequent. Mr. 

 White^ in the year 17^7, communicated the ani- 

 mal to Mr. Pennant, who introduced it into the 

 British Zoology, 



These mice/' says Mr. White, *^are much 

 smaller and more slender than the mus domesticus 

 viedius of Ray, and have more of the squirrel or 

 dormouse colour: their belly is white; a strait 



