218 
Vennin of the Farm 
banks, and corn-fields, where, being very prolific, and laying up 
winter stores, it does an immense amount of mischief to grain 
and seeds of all kinds, peas, beans, and fruit, to say nothing of 
nuts and acorns, to which it is more welcome. Its retreat is 
formed underground, though not invariably so, and an observer 
in Lancashire states that the nests of the field mice are often a 
source of great annoyance in the hayfields, for they get into the 
knives of the mowing machines and choke them, involving a 
stoppage to clear them out, and leaving unsightly ridges of 
grass where they have been dragged along. 
But the retreat is not always underground. It often makes 
Fig. 1.— Tlie Long-tailed Field-mouse J/hs sulvaticus. 
a regular nest in a hedgebank, and we have seen one which was 
taken out of the foundation of a rook’s nest in an elm tree, at 
a considerable elevation from the ground ; another in an old 
nest of the mistletoe thrush, twelve feet up in an oak, and 
roofed over with grass and leaves ; a third in the deserted nest 
of a blackbird. 
The quantity of food which is hoarded up for winter use is 
sometimes astonishing ; corn, beans, peas, acorns, nuts, and 
seeds of various kinds may be found in handfuls in these winter 
retreats, and (as long ago remarked by Pennant) much damage 
is done to the fields Avhere pigs are turned out by reason of 
their rooting up the ground in search of these concealed hoards 
