THEFIELD MOUSE.
This is a larger Mouse than the former, being the largest of the Mouse kind, with a reddish back and a good deal of white under the belly. They abound in gardens, and frequently swarm in prodigious numbers in the fields: they will eat either corn or flesh just as it comes in their way. I have seen five or six of them by moon-light attack a large toad and kill it, which they do often; and when I have been trailing for a fox in the night, I have observed, by turning the light round, several of these Field-Mice following the trail. They are more difficult to destroy than the house-mice, on account that they are shy in taking any bait; however, sometimes, when I havebeen going to catch a fox, I have been sometimes obliged to put some of the feed (so often before mentioned) in the shrape, in order to kill the Mice, before I could get any to lie for the fox. In winter they will likewise come into houses at the sink-holes, and get into the pantries, larders and dairies, being driven from the fields by extremity of hunger, and prove very troublesome and pernicious; and in spring they will get into the gardens, and eat whole rows or drills of peas, after they are set: I can give no better method to destroy these vermin, than to lay some of the above feed for them, as you do for the other, on a tile, and shelter it with some pieces of old boards that it may not get wet: lay it out at night and take it in again in the morning, and all that eat of it will certainly die.