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case of some which were born in confinement, and whose parents were captured in a wheat rick in Sussex, that even when almost as large as the old ones they were not nearly so red. Indeed, until the beginning of December they resembled a House Mouse in colour. About that time, however, they began to change visibly, the hinder quarters, from the root of the tail upwards, becoming rufous before any other portion of the body. This change of colour in the winter I was not prepared for, as I should rather have expected the change from brown to rufous to have taken place in the spring.*

The period of gestation is believed to be the same as with the Long-tailed Field Mouse, namely, three weeks, the number of young, which are born blind, varying from five to eight.

Mr. E. C. Moor, writing from Woodbridge, Suffolk, says :"During the summer of 1883, especially at harvest-time, several nests of the Harvest Mouse were taken by me, mostly from barley-fields, being placed upon the laid barley. Almost all contained young ones, numbering from six to eight; and it was surprising to see how eight fair-sized mice could possibly live in a nest hardly as large as an orange."

During the summer months the Harvest Mouse lives in the open country, evincing a partiality for the borders of ditches in proximity of corn-lands, building its globular nest amongst the tall rank herbage growing in such situations, or in low bushes close by. Mr. Rope found one in Suffolk, in a low blackthorn bush growing by the side of a ditch, and another in a plant of the common broom.t Prof. Schlegel discovered one amongst the branches of a shrub (Hippophaë rhamnoides) on the sand-dunes in Holland, and a second in oak-scrub about a mile from the sea. Other plants observed by him to be selected for nesting in were Rubus fruticosus, Rumex acetosa, and Epilobium.

The nest is composed of grasses, blades of wheat, or split leaves of the reed, and is suspended among the living plants at a little distance from the ground. It is lined with short pieces of grass split by the little animal's teeth, and thus rendered softer and more available for the purpose. A nest found by Mac

* A full account of the habits of these mice as observed in confinement, and the mode of treatment adopted with them, was published in 'The Field' of Jan. 2nd, 1875.

† Zool. 1880, p. 57.

gillivray in Fifeshire was composed of dry blades of grass in the midst of a tuft of Aira cæspitosa. In Essex Dr. Laver reports that he finds these small mice more often in corn stacked in the fields than in that which is carted home, but that when the harvest is carried they find their way to the ricks, evincing a partiality for wheat, but eating oats and barley too when wheat fails them. In Suffolk Mr. Rope has found them as often in stackyards attached to farm buildings as in outlying stacks, and this has been the writer's experience in West Sussex. After the stacks have been threshed, they often remain in the straw throughout the winter.

That the Harvest Mouse, during the summer months, constructs for itself a bird-like nest suspended amongst the stalks of growing plants has of course been long known-in fact, ever since Gilbert White, in 1768, announced the fact in a letter to Pennant as above noticed. He also remarked that "in the winter they burrow deep in the earth and make warm beds of grass, but their grand rendezvous seems to be in corn-ricks, into which they are carried at harvest. A neighbour," he adds, "housed an oat-rick lately, under the thatch of which were assembled near a hundred, most of which were taken, and some I saw."

A curious divergence of habit in this little creature when in its winter haunts has only of late years been announced. The late Prof. Schlegel, of Leyden, with whom it was once the writer's privilege to spend a week, discovered the interesting fact that it sometimes builds a winter nest, into which at the cold season it retires. A very pleasing account of his observations on this point was published in the periodical 'Notes from the Leyden Museum,' vol. iii. pp. 23-28 (1881), and will be found reprinted in The Zoologist' for that year (pp. 233-237).

The locality in which this discovery was made is situated at a distance of about two miles from Leyden, in the neighbourhood of the Castle of Endegeest, celebrated as having served as a refuge to the philosopher Descartes after his exile from France. Here, on the right-hand side of the road leading to the village of Rynsburg, not less celebrated for its abbey than for being the residence of Spinoza, there is to be found a ditch some quarter of a mile in length and six paces in width. Part of the border of this ditch was grown over with reeds. Close observation soon

showed that these reeds actually contained about fifty nests of this little mouse. During the breeding season these were of the usual globular form, of the average size of a man's fist, and showing near the top a small circular opening for the entrance of the little animal. But the winter nests were quite different. These were composed of various mosses, and were attached to and between several stems of reeds, exactly like the nests of the Reed Warblers, but more fusiform, of from six inches to a foot in height, and from three to four inches in diameter. They showed no inlet, and were placed at the height of a foot over the water's level. The animal when entering had to remove the upper part of the covering, which was less densely interwoven, and was concealed between the moss. It appears evident that the building of these nests was a just calculation of being safe against the danger of drowning, in the same way that Swans and Moorhens have been observed to build their nests in time of flood above the reach of the rising water. Some of the mice in the case above noticed went a step further, and adapted to their own requirements the deserted nests of aquatic warblers, which they covered with a cap of grass.

The manner of feeding is very like that of a Squirrel, sitting up on the haunches and holding the food in the fore paws. Mr. Rope has thus described the mode in which a grain of wheat is manipulated :-"Sitting up and holding the grain in a horizontal position between the fore paws (one being placed at each end), the little animal begins dexterously and rapidly turning it round, like a wheel on its axle, at the same time applying it to the edge of his sharp incisors, and by their means slicing off the outer skin or bran, and letting it fall like the shavings from the tool of a wood-turner at his lathe, to whose operations the whole process bears a striking resemblance; nor does he begin eating till he has reduced the grain to a perfectly white and almost cylindrical body." On one occasion Mr. Rope was surprised to see one devouring the seed of the broom.

Mr. J. H. Gurney has remarked (Zool. 1884, p. 112) that the Harvest Mouse in confinement is very fond of Canary seed, as much so, he says, as of wheat; and in spring he found that theyappreciated twigs of hazel, the leaf-buds and partly expanded leaves of which they devoured with great avidity. A bunch of fresh moss with the earth adhering to the roots was also a great

treat to them. They eagerly burrowed into this, probably in search of small insects. As to its insectivorous propensity, the Harvest Mouse has been found by many observers to be partial to flies of several kinds, which they catch very adroitly, and without the least apparent effort or exertion. The Rev. W. Bingley, in his 'Memoirs of British Quadrupeds,' has given an interesting account of the Harvest Mouse in captivity, and thus describes its dexterity as a fly-catcher :

"One evening as I was sitting at my writing desk, and the animal was playing about in the open part of its cage, a large blue fly happened to buzz against the wires; the little creature, although at twice or thrice the distance of her own length from it, sprang along the wires with the greatest agility, and would certainly have seized it had the space betwixt the wires been sufficiently wide to have admitted her teeth or paws to reach it. I was surprised at this occurrence, as I had been led to believe that the Harvest Mouse was merely a graminivorous animal. I caught the fly, and made it buzz in my fingers against the wires. The mouse, though usually shy and timid, immediately came out of her hiding place, and, running to the spot, seized and devoured it. From this time I fed her with insects whenever I could get them, and she always preferred them to every other kind of food that I offered her."*

On this subject Mr. Rope, writing also of a mouse of this species observed in captivity, has remarked (Zool. 1884, p. 57):— "On a fly being put into the cage, the mouse, instead of rushing about after the insect, appears at first to take no notice whatever of it; but when the latter, in buzzing about the cage, approaches within its reach, in the twinkling of an eye he has it firmly grasped in his paws, and it is devoured almost before one can realize the fact of its being caught; the wings and legs are generally rejected. These mice will probably devour many other insects, and I have seen woodlice eaten by them." Even a cockroach, large as it is, fares no better, although there is a certain amount of hesitation in seizing this more formidable-looking prey.

Although an accomplished climber, every movement being performed with ease and grace, the Harvest Mouse has not the extraordinary speed and activity so characteristic of the House

*This observation is confirmed by the Rev. P. Bartlett (Zool. 1843, p. 287), who adds that it drinks water eagerly; and I have seen those which I kept in confinement lap milk with avidity; the tiniest tongue and the most miniature process of lapping imaginable.

Mouse, and on this account when discovered it is more readily captured. Its prehensile tail is a noteworthy feature, and it is of great service to the little animal when descending the corn-stalks. My little captives, when going round in the wheel provided to give them exercise in their cage, invariably made use of their tails to steady themselves upon the slender wire, and lashed it round the wire to bring the wheel to a standstill. The appearance presented when the tail is used for grasping is accurately represented in the figure of this animal which accompanied the article on the Weasel (Zool. 1894, p. 454), to which active little mouse-hunter it must often fall a prey.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Wild Animals killed in Norway in 1894.-The official list of birds and beasts of prey killed throughout Norway last year (1894), and on which the Government rewards were paid, has been recently published. The details are as follows:

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The reward for killing a Bear is 20 kroners, and so also for a Wolf, Lynx, or Glutton; for a Fox, 4 kroners; for an Eagle, 2 kroners, and the same for Goshawks.

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