Mary Ann Mikulski wrote:
I wouldn't think so. Moles are a bit big for the average cat to tackle,
and they have blunt faces, not like the sharp one Carol described.
And, AFAIK, voles are NOT the same as field mice. According to my
dictionary, field mice are "any nocturnal mouse of the Genus Apodemus
inhabiting woods, fields and gardens of the Old World", while voles are
"any of numerous small rodents of the Genus Microtus and related Genera,
mostly of Eurasia and America", however it adds - "having a stocky body
and inconspicuous ears". From a picture in another book, this can't be
right either, as voles appear to have even shorter and stubbier noses
than moles!
OTOH, now I come to look at the picture book, I think /shrews/ may be a
more likely ID for Carol's animals, since these (notoriously tiny but
fierce) animals do have very long, sharp, pointy noses. Of these, the
dictionary says: "any small mouse-like long-snouted mammal such as Sorex
araneous (common shrew) of the Family Soricidae".
Tony
--
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata NZ,
where it's Summer in January and Winter in July.
And I didn't know that they were fierce! Most of the mice I get indoors are these shrews. I see them in the dazed state when I dump them out of the humane trap in the woods!
However I have had mice that came in through a hole in the livingroom (in a corner), since closed, who were the most obnoxious beasts, ran up and down my legs and onto the coffee table to get chocolate. Of course I realized that they were starving! Caught loads of them, never did look to see whether they were field mice or shrews.
Carol
Carol Jensen wrote:
> And I didn't know that they were fierce!
They have a reputation for attacking anything, regardless of size, that
gets in their way! The derogatory name for an overbearing woman -
calling her a shrew - comes from this nature of the little animals!
> However I have had mice that came in through a hole in the livingroom (in a corner), since closed, who were the most obnoxious beasts, ran up and down my legs and onto the coffee table to get chocolate.
When our oldest son was a toddler, a mouse ran up the inside of his
trouser leg one day! He was running around the room clutching himself
and shrieking - more from surprise than terror! We didn't at first
believe that this would have happened, but - sure enough - when Moira
pulled down his trousers to calm him, the mouse jumped out and ran away!
Tony
--
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata NZ,
where it's Summer in January and Winter in July.
