Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/320

292 again when the business is over: but she could not possibly be contained herself in the ball with her young, which, moreover, would be daily increasing in bulk. This wonderful procreant cradle, an elegant instance of the efforts of instinct, was found in a wheat-field suspended in the head of a thistle."—White's 'Natural History of Selborne,' Part i. Letter xii. ' To Thos. Pennant, Esq.'

Note on the Nest of the Harvest-mouse. "It was beautifully and elaborately constructed of the panicles and leaves of three steins of the common] reed, interwoven together, and forming a roundish ball suspended on the living plants, at a height of about five inches from the ground. On the side opposite to the stems, rather below the middle, was a small aperture, which appeared to be closed during the absence of the parent, and was scarcely observable even after one of the young had made its escape through it. The inside, when examined with the little finger, was found to be soft and warm, smooth and neatly rounded, but very confined. This nest contained but five young: but one less elaborately formed, previously examined by Dr. Gloger, was found to afford shelter to no less than nine. The panicles and leaves of the grass were very artificially woven together, the latter being first slit by the action of the little animal's teeth into more or less minute bands or strings. No other substance was used in the construction of the nest, which was altogether without cement, or any means of cohesion save the interweaving of its component parts: it consequently suffered considerable disturbance, even from the most careful handling, losing in neatness of form as much as it gained in its increasing size."—Bennett's White's Selborne; note at p. 58.

Note on the Harvest-mouse. "As to the small mice, T have farther to remark, that though they hang their nests for breeding up amidst the straws of the standing corn, above the ground, yet I find 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 housed an oat-rick lately, under the thatch of which were assembled near a hundred, most of which were taken, and some I saw. I measured them, and found that from nose to tail, they were just two inches and a quarter, and their tails just two inches long. Two of them, in a scale, weighed down just one copper halfpenny, which is about the third of an ounce avoirdupois; so that I suppose they are the smallest quadrupeds in this island.—White's Selborne; Part i. Letter xiii.  ' To Thos. Pennant, Esq.'

Note on the Harvest-mouse. "The harvest-mouse (Mus messorius) in some seasons is common with us, but, like other species of mice, varies much in the numbers found. I have seen their nests as late as the middle of September, containing eight young ones entirely filling the little interior cavity. These nests vary in shape, being round, oval or pear-shaped, with a long neck, and are to be distinguished from those of any other mouse, by being generally suspended on some growing vegetable, a thistle, a bean-stalk, or some adjoining stems of wheat, with which it rocks and waves in the wind; but to prevent the young from being dislodged by any violent agitation of the plant, the parent closes up the entrance so uniformly with the whole fabric, that the real opening is with difficulty found.

"They are the most tame and harmless of little creatures; and, taking shelter in the sheaves when in the field, are often brought home with the crop, and found in little shallow burrows on the ground after the removal of a bean-rick. Those that remain in the field form stores for the winter season, and congregate in small societies in holes under some sheltered ditch-bank. An old one, which I weighed, was only one dram and five grains in weight."— ' Journal of a Naturalist,' p. 139.