THE SQUIRREL. 
119 
half round, and so permits great freedom of movement. The 
Harvest Mouse is even better constructed for climbing than the 
ordinary mouse, inasmuch as its long and flexible toes can grasp 
the grass-stem as firmly as a monkey’s paw holds a bough, and 
the long, slender tail is also partially prehensile, aiding the 
animal greatly in sustaining itself, though it is not gifted with 
the sensitive mobility of the same organ in the spider monkey, 
or kinkajou. 
As the food of the Harvest Mouse consists greatly of insects, 
flies being especial favourites, it is evident that great agility is 
needed- Its leap is remarkably swift, and its aim is as accu- 
rate as that of the swallow. Even in captivity, it has been 
known to take flies from the hand of its- owner, and to leap 
along the wires of its cage as smartly as if it were trying to 
capture an insect that could escape. 
The Harvest Mouse is tolerably prolific, and in the airy cradle 
may sometimes be seen as many as eight young mice, all packed 
together like herrings in a barrel. 
There is another well-known British mammal which, at all 
events at one season of the year, may be classed among those 
creatures who build pensile nests. This is the common Squirrel, 
so plentiful in well-wooded districts, and so scarce where trees 
are few. 
The Squirrel is an admirable nest-builder, though it cannot 
lay claim to the exquisite neatness which distinguishes the 
harvest mouse. As is well known, the Squirrel constructs two 
kinds of nests, or k cages/ as. they are popularly called, one being 
its winter home, wherein it can remain, in a state of hibernation, 
and the other its summer residence. These two nests are as 
different as a town mansion and a shooting-box, the former 
being strong, thick-walled, sheltered, and warm, and the other 
light and airy. The winter cage is almost invariably placed in 
the fork of some tree, generally where two branches start from 
the trunk. It is well concealed by the boughs on which it rests, 
and which serve also as a shelter from the wind. The summer 
cage, on the contrary, is comparatively frail, and is placed nearly 
