ON THE ARBOREAL HABITS OF FIELD MICE. 
By MILLER CHRISTY, F.L.S. 
[Read 25 th January 1919.] 
F EW naturalists appear to realise adequately the extreme 
ease and skill shown by these small rodents in climbing 
trees and bushes, or the frequency with which they climb, 
or the fact that in autumn they obtain a large proportion of 
their food by practising their arboreal habits. These remarks 
apply chiefly, I believe, to the Bank Vole (Evotomys glareolus) 
and to the Long-tailed Field Mouse (Apodcmus sylvaticus). The 
latter, in climbing, is assisted undoubtedly by its long semi- 
prehensile tail ; but the former, which has a very short tail 
only, seems to be able -to climb little, if any, less easily. Both 
species occur here at Chignal St. James, and the latter is very 
abundant in a wood adjoining to my house. Of late I have been 
making observations on them and their scansorial habits, with 
results here set forth. 
Everyone must have noticed, in the hedges, in autumn, 
the number of old nests of small birds filled with a quantity of 
remnants of wild berries. These nests and their contents have 
been studied by several good observers, particularly by Messrs. 
Oldham, 1 Coward,’ 2 and Adams, 3 who have found (as 1 myself 
have done also) that the remnants left in the nests are usually 
those of the “ hips ” of the wild rose (Rosa canina), though the 
berries ol the hawthorn, the blackthorn, the holly, and other 
trees have been identified also. There can be no reasonable 
doubt that the berries have been gathered, and carried into the 
nest, and there eaten, by mice ; and it seems likely that this 
work is usually that of the Vole. This species is commoner, 
as a rule, in the bottoms of hedges, in ditches, and among grass 
than the Field Mouse, which is found more often in woods and 
thickets. Yet, hitherto, the Field Mouse has been generally 
credited with the work, and there can be no doubt that he 
takes a part, though probably a small one. This habit of 
his w as observed as long ago as 1834, when Mary Howitt noticed 
it in a very neat little poem addressed to the “ Wood Mouse,” 
another and highly-appropriate name by which the Long-tailed 
1 Zoologist. 1899. p. 27. 
2 Ul., 1901, p. 221. 
3 See Millais' Mammals , ii,, p. 193 (1905). 
