32 
NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
better pleased to have heard that I had sent you a bird that 
you had never seen before ; but that, I find, would be a difficult 
task. 
I have procured some of the mice mentioned in my former let- 
ters, a young one and a female with young, both of which I have 
preserved in brandy. From the colour, shape, size, and manner 
of nesting, I make no doubt but that the species is nondescript. 
They are much smaller, and more slender, than the mus domes- 
ticus medius of Ray, and have more of the squirrel or dormouse 
colour. Their belly is white, a straight line along their sides 
divides the shades of their back and belly. They never enter 
into houses, are carried into ricks and barns with the sheaves, 
abound in harvest, and build their nests amidst the straws of the 
corn above the ground, and sometimes in thistles. They breed 
as many as eight at a litter, in a little round nest composed of 
the blades of grass or wheat. 
One of these nests I procured ftiis autumn, 
most artificially platted, and composed of the 
blades of wheat ; perfectly round, and about 
the size of a cricket-ball ; with the aperture 
so ingeniously closed, that there was no dis- 
covering to what part it belonged. It was 
so compact and well filled, that it would roll 
across the table without being discomposed, 
though it contained eight little mice that 
were naked and blind. As this nest was 
perfectly full, how could the dam come at her Field Mouse and Nest, 
litter respectively so as to administer a teat to each ? perhaps she 
opens different places for that purpose, adjusting them again when 
the business is over ; but she could not possibly be contained 
herself in the ball with her young, which moreover would be 
daily increasing in bulk. This wonderful procreant cradle, and 
elegant instance of the efforts of instinct, was found in a wheat- 
field suspended in the head of a thistle.* 
A gentleman, curious in birds, wrote me word that his servant 
had shot one last J anuary, in that severe weather, which he be- 
lieved would puzzle me. I called to see it this summer, not 
knowing what to expect : but, the moment I took it in hand, I 
* Of this pretty little animal, the harvest-mouse {mus messorim) , remarkable for its slightly 
prehensile tail, Mr. White was the discoverer. It is one of the smallest quadrupeds in existence ; 
and, like the rest of its tribe which inhabit the open country, is in some seasons very much 
more plentiful than in others. — Ed. 
