jtk@ihlpl.UUCP (Kitredge) (02/07/86)
The following is reprinted from _The_ _New_ _Yorker_ magazine, 3 February 1986. It is an excerpt from the _London_ _Daily_ _Telegraph_ (no date given), which _The_ _New_ _Yorker_ printed under the title "There'll Always Be an England". Firemen revived three baby field mice with oxygen equipment when their nest was spotted smoldering beside the M11. A fire and rescue team who had doused a roadside fire at Madingley discovered the smoke-filled nest as they tidied up. Six babies were inside, three already dead and three "in a pretty poor state," said Fireman Andrew Dunlop. PERKED UP "It seemed a pity to leave them, so we got them out of the nest and decided to use the oxygen apparatus. We put them in the small hollow where the nest had been, put a face mask over the top and gave them three or four minutes of oxygen. "They perked up more or less straight away, and tried to scamper off. But we put them together and left them safe in the hope that the mother would return and rear them successfully. "There were plenty of mouseholes in the banking at the side of the road, and we think she just went in one of them to escape the fire."