“If I ever come across a harvest-mouse I sha’n’t have the heart to do it any harm. It may go on eating oats in its pretty little nest, for all I care; I sha’n’t try to stop it.” “Here,” concluded Uncle Paul, “I will end my account of the chief representatives of the rat family in these regions. They are five in number: the black rat, the mouse, the Norway rat, the field-mouse, and the harvest-mouse.” CHAPTER XIV MEADOW-MICE [3]—HAMSTERS—DORMICE “Another kind of rodent now calls for our attention: it is the family of meadow-mice, commonly confounded with rats. Meadow-mice are easily recognized by their short, slightly hairy tail. “The meadow-mouse is about as large as a common mouse. Its coat is of a yellowish hue mixed with gray above and dirty white underneath. The tail is only one-quarter as long as the body. The eyes are large and prominent, the ears rounded, hairy, and standing out but little from the fur. The head is large and less pointed than that of the ordinary mouse. “In its rapid and abundant breeding the meadow-mouse is one of the farmer’s chief foes. It overruns grain-fields especially, cutting down the stalks to nibble the ears. After harvest it attacks clover roots, carrots, potatoes, and the products in general of our kitchen-gardens. In winter it digs under the furrows to eat the seeds sown there. If the soil is so frost-bound as not to permit it to reach the buried seed, it retires to the stacks of grain, where it does great damage. It never makes its way into our dwellings. Meadow-mice appear to emigrate from one country to another in colonies when the country they have ravaged can no longer supply them with food; at any rate, from time to time, once or twice in a decade, they suddenly appear in countless droves that are a real scourge to the country visited. The best destroyers of these creatures are nocturnal birds of prey, as is proved by the presence of their skulls, bones, and skins in the balls that are thrown up by these birds after digestion. Some say diurnal birds of prey, buzzards in particular, are equally fond of them. It is not at all uncommon to find in a buzzard’s crop as many as ten or more meadow-mice. “The underground meadow-mouse is much less common in France than the one just described, from which it differs in its gray-and-blackish coat, its somewhat smaller tail, and its tiny eyes. But the greatest difference is in its habits. The first-mentioned lives in the fields, especially in grain-fields, while the second frequents meadows and kitchen-gardens. It feeds on various kinds of vegetables, such as celery, artichokes, carrots, potatoes, and cardoons. It seldom shows itself out of its underground tunnels, and on account of its habit of lurking beneath the surface it is called the underground meadow-mouse.