THE ARBOREAL HABITS OF FIELD MICE. 19
Field Mouse is often spoken of.4 Yet, as lately 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 filled. 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 Gt. Brit. and Irel., ii., pp. 192-193 (1905).