Mr. J. E. Harting on Forest Animals. 91
I once discovered a dormouse ensconced in an old nest
of a blackbird, where it had made itself very comfortable
in a bed of dead leaves. Although, like other Rodents, it
is, strictly speaking, a vegetarian—feeding on beech-mast,
acorns, young hazel-nuts, corn, and so forth, during the
autumn, and laying up stores for the winter—yet, during
the summer, when such food is not to be obtained, it is
insectivorous. A tame dormouse, when allowed a run in
the garden, would eat the Aphis lanigera, and the caterpillars
of Sphinx ocellata. It was very fond also of the grubs of
Balanus nucum, the nut weevil, preferring maggotty nuts
to sound ones on that account; it would also eat the
small caterpillars found in apples and pears.
As its name implies, the dormouse is a great sleeper,
and remains dormant during the greater part of the winter.
I once saw a pure white dormouse which had been cap-
tured at Cowfold, near Horsham, where it is now pre-
served in the collection of my friend Mr. Borrer.
Two other little animals sometimes cross our path as we
take our rambles through the forest—the Long-tailed and
Short-tailed Fieldmice. Strictly speaking, the latter is not
a true mouse, but a vole (belonging, like the so-called
water rat, to the genus Arvicola, the members of which
are distinguished from those of the genus Mus by several
well-marked characters).
You may know the long-tailed fieldmouse by his sharp
snout, long ears, and long rat-like tail. The short-tailed
vole, on the contrary, has a blunt rounded muzzle, short
ears almost hidden in the fur of the head, and a short hairy
tail. Though very attractive in appearance, and easily tamed,
they are, unfortunately, rather mischievous in their habits,
and sometimes do a great deal of damage in young planta-
tions by barking the trees.* Fortunately, they are kept in
check to a considerable extent by owls, both white and
brown, who capture and devour great numbers of them, as
I have often ascertained by an examination of their rejected
pellets.
* See Jesse's "Gleanings," 1st series, p. 175, and St. John's "Wild
Sports and Natural History of the Highlands," p. 67.
D