In some respects this animal is very much like the field-vole. But you can tell it at once by its more pointed muzzle, by its much larger ears, and, above all, by its very much longer tail. It lives in gardens, fields, and hedgerows, but often takes shelter in houses and barns during the winter. But all through the spring, summer, and autumn it occupies burrows in the ground, and very often it lays up quite large quantities of provisions in its tunnels for winter use, just as the hamster does in Germany. It does not always dig these burrows for itself, however, for very often it will take possession of the deserted run of a mole, or even of a natural hollow beneath the spreading roots of a tree. As a general rule, this little animal is a vegetable-eater only. But when food is scarce it will kill and devour small animals, and has even been known to prey upon its own kind. The pretty little harvest-mouse is the smallest of the European rodents. A full-grown harvest-mouse is seldom more than four and a half inches long, of which almost one half is occupied by the tail. And it would take six of the little creatures to weigh an ounce. The harvest-mouse is not found, as a rule, near human habitations, but lives in corn-fields and pastures. But sometimes it is carried home in sheaves of corn at harvest-time, and in that case it lives in the ricks during the winter. Generally, however, it spends the winter months fast asleep in a burrow in the ground. Then, when the warm months of spring come round, it wakes up, and sets about building a most beautiful little nest of grasses and leaves, which it always suspends among corn-stalks or grass-stems at some little height from the ground. This nest is about as large as a baseball, and the odd thing about it is that you can never find any entrance! Apparently, when the little builder wishes to go in and out, it pushes its way between the strips of grass of which the nest is composed, and then carefully arranges them again in position. And it is so cleverly built that when eight or nine little mice which are brought up inside it begin to grow, it stretches to suit their increasing size, so that their nursery is always just big enough to contain them. The harvest-mouse is a capital climber, and runs up and down the corn-stalks with great activity, even though they bend nearly to the ground under its weight. The tip of its tail, strange to say, is prehensile, just like that of a spider-monkey. PORCUPINES Of course you know what a porcupine is like, with its coat of long, bristling spines. Indeed, the word porcupine means spiny pig, and refers partly to the quill-like spikes, and partly to the odd grunting noise which the animal utters from time to time.