THE MOUSE. (Mus musculus.)
This is a lively, active animal, and the most timid in nature, except the hare, and a few other defenceless species. Although timid, he eats in the trap as soon as he is caught; yet he never can be thoroughly tamed, nor does he betray any affection for his assiduous keeper. He is beset by a number of enemies, among which are the cat, the hawk, and owl, the snake, and weasel, and the rat himself, though not unlike the mouse in his habits and shape. The mouse is one of the most prolific of animals, sometimes producing seventeen at a birth; but it is supposed that the life of this small inmate of our habitations does not extend much further than three years. This creature is known all over the world, and breeds wherever it finds food and tranquillity. There are Mice of various colours, but the most common kind is of a dark, cinereous hue: white mice are not uncommon, particularly in Savoy and some parts of France.
A remarkable instance of sagacity in a long-tailed Field Mouse (Mus sylvaticus) occurred to the Rev. Mr. White, as his people were pulling off the lining of a hotbed, in order to add some fresh dung. From the side of this bed something leaped with great agility, that made a most grotesque appearance, and was not caught without much difficulty. It proved to be a large Field Mouse, with three or four young ones clinging to her teats by their mouths and feet. It was amazing that the various and rapid motions of the dam did not oblige her litter to quit their hold, especially when it appeared that they were so young as to be both naked and blind. Mr. White appears to be the first to describe and accurately examine that diminutive creature the Harvest Mouse (Mus messorius) the least of all the British quadrupeds. He measured some of them, and found that from the nose to the tail they were two inches and a quarter long. Two of them in a scale only weighed down one copper halfpenny, about the third of an ounce avoirdupoise! Their nest is a great curiosity, being made in the form of a ball, and either suspended between the stems of rushes and other tall slender plants, or placed amongst the leaves of some large thistle.
THE RAT. (Mus decumanus.)