Quote:
Originally Posted by
(Bob said):The one I found dead was quite big for a mouse, but not a rat (had them in our garden at home), and had a reddish colour fur with a white tummy and after your comment I haven't been able to put a name to it.[/i][/color]
Nick said: Yes, that's a field mouse - a.k.a. wood mouse. They are bigger
than house mice, but their holes are rarely bigger than 1" diameter.
Even rat holes are not normally 3" diameter, and mole ones are
more like 1.5".
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I don't think so.
The Wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus, is also known as the Long-tailed field mouse. It is quite small, 90mm, and not reddish nor having a white underside.
"Field Mouse" is not a well-defined common name in Britain. It refers generally to the genus Apodemus, so it includes the Wood mouse. The other Apodemus we have in Britain is the Yellow-necked mouse, A. flavicollis. It is a bit bigger than the Wood mouse, 100mm, and more reddish, but doesn't match your description. They aren't terribly common either, and very restricted in their geographical range within Britain.
From your "reddish with white underside" description, what I think you have probably seen is a Bank vole, Myodes glareolus. They are 100mm long, so on the large side for a mouse. They are reddish-brown, and whilst they don't have a white underside, they have grey-ish patches that can give that impression if you don't actually see the whole underside - see the picture on Wikipedia. They are also exceedingly common. I think the most commonly seen mouse that isn't a house mouse is the Bank vole.
The other vole we have in Britain, the Field vole or Short-tailed vole, Myodes agrestis, is even larger, 110mm, but is grey with some brown patches.
In comparison, the house mouse is 75-100mm and the harvest mouse 55-75mm. The harvest mouse is very reddish. I think I have now mentioned all the mice of the British mainland.