They
are much smaller and more slender than the mus domesticus
medius of Ray; and have more of the squirrel or dormouse colour:
their belly is white, a straight line along their sides divides the
shades of their back and belly. They never enter into houses; are
carried into ricks and barns with the sheaves; abound in harvest,
and build their nests amidst the straws of the corn above the
ground, and sometimes in thistles. They breed as many as eight at a
litter, in a little round nest composed of the blades of grass or
wheat.
One of these nests I procured this autumn, most artificially platted,
and composed of the blades of wheat; perfectly round, and about
the size of a cricket-ball; with the aperture so ingeniously closed,
that there was no discovering to what part it belonged. It was so
compact and well filled, that it would roll across the tame being
discomposed, though it contained eight little mice that were naked
and blind. As this nest was perfectly full, how could the dam come
at her litter respectively so as to administer a teat to each? perhaps
she opens different places for that purpose, adjusting them 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.
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