From: giraffe@longneck.inc (giraffe~⇔)
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.pictures.artpics
Subject: Re: Critters - KitchenBert_AndSoTheyBuild04-iej.jpg
Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2000 03:02:04 GMT

>*
>*From a educational book for children
>*And So They Build
>*Written & illustrated by Bert Kitchen
>*
>*ISBN 1-56402-502-0


KitchenBert_AndSoTheyBuild04-iej

A pregnant harvest mouse will soon have a family
and so she builds.....

This tiny mouse is found in areas ranging from
Brittain to Japan. Before her babies are born,
the female mouse weaves a nest around a group
of upright, growing stalks in a cultivated field,
using long leaves still attached to the plants to
form the basic shape. She weaves the walls with
blades of grass, which she first shreds lengthways
into manageable strands with her sharp teeth, and
lines the nest with shorter shredded blades of
grass and other soft plants.

Warm, comfortable, and safely suspended above
ground - growing higher and higher as the stalks
to which it is attached grow - this perfect nest
for baby mice takes their mother just five to ten
hours to build.