Field mouse

“ This handiwork of the white-footed or deer mouse can be found in almost every field or tangle of undergrowth; the nest of a field sparrow or catbird being used as a foundation and thickly covered over and tightly thatched with leaves. Now and then, even in mid-winter, we may find the owner at home, and as the weasel is the most bloodthirsty, so the deer mouse is the most beautiful and gentle of all the fur-coated folk of our woods. ”

“ Had the harvest mouse ever seen a windmill, he would assuredly have concluded that a young one had escaped, and was walking in ever-narrowing circuits, round the field. The mist lifted further, and he saw the thing more clearly. Its great red arms swung dark against the sky, gathering the corn in a giant’s grasp to feed its ravenous cutters. Round and round the field it went. Each time as it travelled to the distant corners the mouse dropped down to earth; each time as it thundered close at hand, he dashed like lightning up the [Pg 134] stalk to look. ”

“ Now and then a mother mouse may be noticed basking in the sun, her little ones round her, generally keeping near the nest.
Usually, it is only when in danger or frightened that the little creature travels along in its peculiar jumping way. It appears that wherever a jumping mouse is, [Pg 300] be it field or woodland, it takes to the thick grass or underbrush, probably because amongst these it finds the food required. But in these places it is in peril from enemies coming suddenly to seize it, and the mouse has a great advantage by being able to leap, and not run through tangled grass. ”

“ Tiny field mouse, that turn’d up nose vixen the shrew,
The harvest mouse, fresh from a settler’s rick,
Were condemn’d by the great ones as not of their clique;
These reclined round a mole hill, and each dipp’d his paw
In a cocoa-nut bowl fill’d with rice, “en pillau.”
And the harvest mouse took most exceeding great pains
To squeak them a stanza in honour of grains.
[p24]
MOUSE’S SONG.
“An ear of corn, a grain of rice,
Banquet rich for simple mice;
A leaf his bed, a hole his house,
Who could hurt a harmless mouse? ”

“ Nothing gives warning of its sudden coming: the prey is seized even before it has suspected the nearness of the enemy. The owl, on the contrary, with its exceptional acuteness of hearing, is kept informed of all that is going on in the neighborhood, its large, deep ears detecting even the rustle of a field-mouse in the grass. If the mouse begins to nibble a rootlet or a grain of wheat, the bird hears the sound of its incisors and pounces on it immediately. ”

“ Climbing Powers of the Long-tailed Field Mouse.—During autumn and early winter Long-tailed Field Mice (Mus sylvaticus) eat the kernels of wild rose seeds in large numbers. To obtain the hips, the Mice climb among the briers, often travelling to the extremities of slender twigs in order to reach the fruit. ”

“ All goes down, including bones and hair. Not a trace is left of the field-mouse, not even its coat of fur. But a single victim is seldom enough, and so the hunt continues. More mice follow the first one, and all are first killed by a peck on the head, all are swallowed whole. If the bird chances upon a fat beetle, he does not disdain it. It is a small mouthful, to be sure, but highly flavored with spices that will aid digestion. At last, having eaten all it possibly can, the owl returns to its lodging in the hollow of some rock, or in a decayed tree trunk, or in some ruined building. ”

“ I have had at the same time in confinement an English mouse (albino) , a Bengal field mouse, and house mice from Simla of another species, and none of them could show equal activity. I use, for the purpose of taming mice, a glass fish-globe, out of which none of the other mice could get, but I have repeatedly seen specimens of M. urbanus jump clear out of the opening at the top. They would look up, gather their hind quarters together, and then go in for a high leap. They are much more voracious than the Simla or other mice. ”

“ But let a mouse come and scratch anywhere near, and the red owl immediately ruffles its forehead—the first sign of attention. It straightens up and spreads out its egrets—a sign of the closest possible attention. It has heard, it has understood. Off darts the bird and the mouse is caught.
“The smaller rodents are its delight. It seasons them with beetles and June-bugs—especially the latter which are an aid to digestion. When larger game is lacking it contents itself with a frugal meal [121] of insects, hoping to make up for it soon with a good dinner of meadow-mice. ”

“ So much for the destructive powers of the Field-mouse, and the next point to be considered is its abundance.
Nearly all the rats and mice are singularly prolific animals, producing a considerable number at a brood, and having several broods in a season. The Field-mouse is by no means an exception to the general rule, but produces as many young in a season as any of the Mice. ”

“ As far as I have ever seen, they kill nothing larger, in the way of small game, than field-mice and such small fry. But they are both quick and clever at catching these. They will turn over stumps and roll logs aside and up-end flat stones and catch an escaping mouse before it goes a yard. ”

“ And turning around, Peter saw a plump little field-mouse sitting by the side of the path.
M
Y cousin, Susan Shrew-Mouse, sent me word by the carrier pigeon that you were coming this way. Pray come and have luncheon with me,” it said.
PETER Rabbit was certainly delighted, for his little round tummy had started to give him some inside information, and it was of a kind that made him uncomfortable. He had never been hungry before, and he thought with regret of the good food his mother had always provided, and he began to see himself in the light of a very
ungrateful bunny, indeed. ”

“ When the mother mouse goes away, she closes up the door of her nest, so no one can see her little ones.
4. The harvest-mouse runs up the corn and grass stalks easily. In climbing, it holds on by its tail as well as by its claws. The way it comes down from its nest is very curious. It twists its tail about the stalk and slides down.
5. Another of the field-mice is the dormouse, that lives in the woods. It has a bushy tail, and makes its nest in hollow trees. It lives upon nuts and fruit. As cold weather comes on, it rolls itself up in a ball, and sleeps until spring. ”

“ Many stories have been told in the past, tending to show that wild animals when in trouble will display surprising confidence in man, in fact will often seek his assistance when sore beset. The writer, when a boy upon a farm in Minnesota, had an experience with a field mouse which prettily illustrates this trait in wild creatures. ”

“ And there, sitting nicely balanced on his hind legs, with his sharp black eyes shining brightly, was a small field mouse with a long rattle between his teeth, shaking it about vigorously every few minutes, then running a few paces and rattling it again.
We had cut off a number of rattles from the snakes killed on our ranch to keep them as curiosities, and this was one of them which the mouse had got hold of and seemed to find such a good plaything.
(To be continued. )
VARIETIES. How He grew Rich. ”

“ I noticed many traits among the British animals and birds that looked like the result both of the sharp competition going on among themselves in their crowded ranks and of association with man. Thus, the partridge not only covers her nest, but carefully arranges the grass about it so that no mark of her track to and fro can be seen. The field mouse lays up a store of grain in its den in the ground, and then stops up the entrance from within. ”

“ Besides these parasitic mice, there are a host of field- and forest-mice in this and other countries. One of the best-known English species is the Harvest-mouse, which makes a globular nest of grass in the wheat-fields, attached to stems of corn or weeds. In this the young are born. In winter the mouse lives in holes in banks, and lays up a store of kernels and grain. The Wood-mouse is larger than the former, or than the House-mouse. It is yellowish brown in colour, lays up a great store of winter food, and is itself the favourite prey of the weasel. ”

“ The tiny tracks of the Field-Mice are occasionally seen on the snow in winter.
There is another pretty little animal, called the Deer-Mouse, which, strictly speaking, is not considered a mouse. Its body is only three inches long, while its tail is eight inches. It takes leaps of ten or twelve feet. It is a northern animal, nocturnal, and rarely seen, but not uncommon; they are frequently found in ploughed grass-lands. They feed chiefly on grass and seeds. ”

“ How much actual food does a mouse need for one meal? Very little, unquestionably. A mouse is so small that a single nut will fill its stomach. Don’t think, however, that one day’s ravages are confined to that one nut. After the nut is eaten, the animal will proceed, perhaps, to gnaw a hole in a bag, reduce a piece of cloth to tatters, chew up a [99] book, or drill a hole in a board, simply and solely to whet its teeth. And the damage caused by rats and mice in our dwelling-houses is matched by other damage caused by other rodents in the fields. ”

“ Three species of meadow mice are known to inhabit the park, and of these, two are so similar that the positive field identification of each is difficult in most instances. Only the Cascade meadow mouse, or water vole, shows sufficiently distinctive characteristics to permit easy recognition. Of the two similar species, the Oregon meadow mouse is probably most likely to be encountered. ”

“ Highland Grass Mouse (M. agrestis neglectus) found on the summits of the highest Scottish mountains. It is larger than the Field Vole, with thicker fur and darker, browner upper side. It differs from M. a. exsul in the simpler character of the first molar tooth.
Muck Grass Mouse (M. agrestis luch) , of which only three specimens have been taken, all on the island of Muck. About the same size as the Field Vole, it has a buff underside. ”

“ Hunting on a minor scale is a very favourite recreation, and the children find a daily amusement in catching rats and field-mice. They weave baskets in the form of long tubes, which they lay flat upon the ground in the immediate neighbourhood of the mouse-holes; they then commence a regular battue, when the scared mice, scampering back to regain their homes, run through the stubble, and often rush into the open traps, where, like fish in a weir-basket, they are easily secured. ”

“ Yes, I recall the time; that cat’s tongue is fully as sharp as her claws.”
“Be that as it may,” said the little mauve mouse, “it is a matter of history, and therefore beyond dispute, that from that very moment the cat pined for Squeak­nibble’s life; it seemed as if that one little two-inch taste of Squeak­nibble’s tail had filled the cat with a consuming passion, or appetite, for the rest of Squeak­nibble. So the cat waited and watched and hunted and schemed and devised and did every­thing possible for a cat—a cruel cat—to do in order to gain her murderous ends. ”

“ Both pine mice and field mice are serious pests to agriculture and only by vigilant care can they be prevented from steadily reducing the returns from farm and orchard. A mouse appears so insignificant an enemy that the general inclination among farmers is to ignore it, but both field and pine mice exist in such enormous numbers and are so generally distributed that the aggregate annual losses from them are great. ”

“ And birds of prey take their toll of the feeding multitudes. All through the year animal life finds sanctuary in the cornfield. Underground are the moles; the harvest mouse weaves its nest in the corn-stems; the rabbit makes a stop in the field near the hedge, and eats the green blades. To the ripening corn the fox brings her cubs to play. In the ditches are hedgehogs; everywhere are rats, mice, and shrew-mice. The hare follows secret paths, and there are stoats and weasels seeking prey, and finding it on every side. ”

“ Gnome-owl with Captured Mouse
“In summer-time the howlet lives in the woods. It hunts by preference field-mice and meadow-mice, which it swallows whole, afterward throwing up the skin and bones rolled into a ball. The little birds that worry it so unmercifully in the daytime, whenever they get a chance to come upon it unawares in the sunlight, are not safe from its beak in the hours of darkness if the night-bird can pounce upon them after first frightening them with its terrible hoo-hoo. ”

“ The barn-owl, the horned owl, the gray owl, the white owl, and other similar birds are known under the general name of nocturnal birds of prey. They are called birds of prey because they live by hunting game of various sorts, especially such rodents as rats and mice. They are among birds what the cat is among mammals, untiring destroyers of those fur-covered creatures of which the mouse is the most familiar example to you. ”

“ All three—hedgehog, mole, and shrew-mouse—live on small game—insects, larvæ, slugs, caterpillars, worms. They belong to the group of mammals known to naturalists as the order of insectivorous animals, or, in other words, the order of insect-eaters. On and under the ground they carry on the same kind of hunt that bats do in the air. In their way of living bats, too, are insectivorous ”