THE ARBOREAL HABITS OF FIELD MICE.* 
10 
Field Mouse is often spoken of. 4 Yet, as latefy as 1905, in spite 
of this and the records of Messrs. Coward and Oldham (noticed 
above), Mr. J. G. Millais was able to speak of the creature’s 
climbing habit, as “ little known/’ 5 
I have placed in the Museum of the Essex Field Club, at 
Stratford, specimens of these gnawed rose-hips, taken from an 
old nest. If one examines critically the remnants left in these 
nests, one perceives quickly that the mouse’s sole objective is 
the kernel contained in each of the seeds with which the com¬ 
paratively-large “ hip ” of the rose is tilled. To get at this, the 
bright red outer pulp of the “ hip ” is torn off and discarded 
—either thrown to the ground or left in the nest uneaten. Then 
the mouse takes one of the small hard seeds (or “ stones ”), 
and gnaws away its base, making a hole just large enough 
to enable it to extract the kernel, which it proceeds to eat, , 
afterwards treating others in the same way. 
In the case of these old deserted birds’-nests, used by mice 
as feeding-platforms or “ dining-rooms,” the height above 
the ground is usually small-—seldom more than from three to 
five feet. To reach them requires, therefore, no very great 
agility on the part of the mouse. Yet the Vole (or whatever 
other kind of mouse makes use of them) must possess great 
skill in climbing bushes ; for the berries apparently gathered 
by them, and conveyed to and eaten in these nests, grow, as 
a rule, on the top-most twigs of the hedges, and, to reach them, 
the mice have to climb usually to a height of at least ten or 
fifteen feet from the ground. 
Turning to the Long-tailed Field Mouse, I have recently 
noted instances showing that its climbing powers are really 
remarkable. 
Thus, of late, I have not infrequently found individuals 
sleeping in the nesting-boxes I have put up in the wood for 
small birds to breed in. These boxes are placed eight or ten 
feet from the ground, being affixed to the perpendicular sides 
of the trunks of fairly-large oak and ash trees. To reach them, 
the mice have to climb up the bark, clinging to its rough surface, 
which they are able to do with ease. Several times, when 
inserting my hand into a nest in one of my boxes, I have seized 
4 Hereabouts it is often called the “ Land Mouse.” to distinguish it from, the Domestic' 
(or “ House”,) Mouse, which frequents buildings almost exclusively, 
5 Mammals of (It.Bril, and Irel., ii., pp. 192-193 (1905). 
