THE HARVEST MOHSE. 
S3 
GILBERT WHITE* 
Thou wast a poet, though thou knew’st it not, 
Then on a merry morning, when the thrush 
Fluted and fluted musical in the bush, 
And blackbirds whisked along thy garden-plot. 
Didst watch an hour beside thy hanger’s foot. 
. The quivering kestrel hung aloft the skies 
To mark aught stirring, or with pensive eyes 
In cherry-orchards didst forecast the fruit. 
And shall I deem it idle thus to scan 
The myriad life, and reverently wait, 
A patient learner, auguring, behind 
The restless hand, the unhesitating mind? 
This was thy daily task, to learn that man 
Is small, and not forget that man is great. 
Arthur Christopher Benson. 
THE HARVEST MOUSE, 
{Mus minutus.) 
S I think that this little being, the smallest but onef of 
the British quadrupeds, is not often kept as a pet, I 
have made a few notes on the appearance and habits 
of one which was in my possession during July and 
August, 1892. His early home was in the cornfields of Essex; 
when full grown he met captivity half-way by running up a 
mower’s sleeve. He then lived two months, and to all appear- 
ances, very happily, in a larva breeding-cage, and died from 
the effects of the thunder-storm of August i8th. 
I will now describe the species so far as my personal observa- 
tion of this tiny individual went. His whole length was 3.1 in., 
the body being 1.7 in., and the tail 1.4 in. — a creature so small 
that the very turn of a hair gave or subtracted a beauty. The 
fur of the upper part of the body was of the colour of ripe red 
wheat, so that when standing on the ears of corn he could hardly 
be distinguished from them ; the fur on the hind legs was of 
a warmer and brighter brown than the rest of the back. The 
under side of the body from the throat to the tail pure white. 
The ears short and generally pressed back ; the eyes not so 
large in proportion to the head as in the dormouse, when casually 
looked at their expression appeared mild and inattentive, but 
•Reprinted, bv kind jx;tmission of the author, from Lc Cahicr Jaime (see 
p. 89).— Ed. V.A: 
+ Sorcx pygmatis. 
