List of ths Fauna of the County. 171
finement is over two years, but I never could make them so
tame as my pets of the next species (Mus sylvaticus).
In-doors they do not become torpid, nor when living in corn-
ricks. I have never found any young in corn-ricks, although
they are said to breed there, and I consider their breeding-
season is entirely confined to the summer months. This
habit perhaps helps to prevent them becoming the pests
some of the other mice undoubtedly are to the farmer and
gardener.5
Mus sylvaticus. Wood Mouse.—This gentle little creature
and delightful home pet is one of the most destructive of its
race; in fields, gardens, or plantations, newly sown peas or
corn, or recently planted bulbs or shrubs, are especial objects
of its attention. It is rarely found in houses, barns, or ricks,
preferring much the shelter of a hedgerow or wood. I
generally have some of these mice in confinement, and they
are very friendly one with the other, so that as many as you
please may be kept together, even if they are quite strangers.
This herding together seems natural to the Wood Mouse,
fourteen or fifteen, and even more, may sometimes be dug out
of one burrow. They seem also to work together in storing
provisions, the bunches of growing barley or other corn
showing plainly where the storehouse has been ; but nothing
in the way of vegetable food seems to come amiss to this
very abundant mouse. Albinos are occasionally taken, and
the colour of different specimens varies considerably in shades
of red. Of all our native mice this is most easily tamed;
an occasional specimen is more than usually friendly, and
may be made to come into the hand within a month of
capture. I have never succeeded in rearing the young of
either this or the harvest mouse in confinement.
5 [This little animal, with the exception of Sorex pygmaeus, the smallest
British mammal, was first noticed as an inhabitant of this country by
Gilbert White (Letters X. and XII.) He gave Pennant a description of
the tiny nest in his own inimitable style, and adds, "This wonderful pro-
creant cradle, an elegant instance of the efforts of instinct, was found in
a wheat-field suspended in the head of a thistle."—Ed.]