Many Mice
Those ingenious Oxford biologists who make special study of the ups and downs of animal life should note that mice are almost multitudinous this year in a great many places— in Norfolk and Hertfordshire for example. Doubtless one reason for this seeming increase is the bad weather that has driven them into the neighbourhood of houses ; but there is some reason to believe that the actual number is altogether beyond the normal. The species in question is the long- tailed field mouse. They have crowded into some stack- yards and anyone who has been present when a cornstack is threshed out will know what a horde of guests the farmer has been entertaining. The country will save a deal of valuable food if in the next harvest all grain is threshed out at the earliest moment ; and as things are, or have been, it is often extremely difficult for anyone with only a small quantity of grain to secure the services of a thresher. Let Mr. Morrison and Sir Reginald Dorman Smith take heed of the mice as well as of the sparrows and rabbits.
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