30 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 
LETTER XII. 
November ath, 1767. 
It gave me no small satisfaction to hear that the falcon 
turned out an uncommon one. I must confess I should have 
been better pleased to have heard that I had sent you a bird 
that you had never seen before; but that, I find, would be a 
difficult task. 
I have procured some of the mice mentioned in my former 
letter,! a young one and a female, both of which I have pre- 
served. From the color, shape, size, and manner of nesting, 
I make no doubt but that the species is nondescript. ‘They 
are much smaller, and more slender, than the domestic mouse, 
and have more of the squirrel or dormouse color; their belly 
is white, a straight line along their sides divides the shades of 
their back and belly. They never enter into houses ; are car- 
ried into ricks and barns with the sheaves; abound in harvest; 
and build their nests amidst the straws of the corn above the 
ground, and sometimes in thistles. ‘They breed as many as 
eight at a litter, in a little round nest composed of the blades 
of grass or wheat. 
One of these nests I procured this autumn, most artificially 
platted, and composed of the blades of wheat, perfectly round, 
and about the size of a cricket-ball ; with the aperture so in- 
geniously closed, that there was no discovering to what part it 
belonged. It was so compact and well filled, that it would 
roll across the table without being discomposed, though it con- 
tained eight little mice that were naked and blind. As this 
nest was perfectly full, how could the mother-mouse come at 
her litter so as to administer nourishment to each? Perhaps 
she opens different places for that purpose, adjusting them 
again when the business is over; but she could not possibly 
be contained herself in the ball with her young, which, more- 
1 Letter X. 
