22 6 Handbook of Nature-Study 



a ball and at its center is nestled the family. Mice living in houses, 

 have runways between the plaster and the outside, or between ceiling 

 and floor. In winter they live on what food they can find, and upon flies 

 or other insects hibernating in our houses. The house mice sometimes 

 live under stacks of corn or grain in the fields, but usually confine them- 

 selves to houses or barns. They are thirsty little fellows and they like to 

 make their nests within easy reach of water. Our house mice came from 

 ancestors which lived in Asia originally; they have always been great 

 travelers and they have followed men wherever they have gone, over the 

 world. They came to America on ships with the first explorers and the 

 Pilgrim fathers. They now travel back and forth, crossing the ocean in 

 ships of all sorts. They also travel across the continent on trains. 

 Wherever our food is carried they go; and the mouse, which you see in 

 your room one day, may be a thousand miles away within a week. They 

 are clever creatures, and learn quickly to connect cause and effect. For 

 two years, I was in an office in Washington, and as soon as the bell rang 

 for noon, the mice would appear instantly, hunting waste-baskets for 

 scraps of lunch. They had learned to connect the sound of the bell 

 with food, j 



Of all our wild mice, the white-footed or deer mouse is the most 

 interesting and attractive. It is found almost exclusively in woods and is 

 quite different in appearance from other mice. Its ears are very large; 

 its fur is fine and beautiful and a most delicate gray color. It is white 

 beneath the head and under the sides of the body. The feet are pinkish, 

 the front paws have short thumbs, while the hind feet are very much 

 longer and have a long thumb looking very much like an elfin hand in a 

 gray-white silk glove. On the bottom of the feet are callous spots which 

 are pink and serve as foot 



pads. It makes its nest in '\ 



hollow trees and stores nuts 

 for winter use. We once 

 found two quarts of shelled 

 beech nuts in such a nest. It 

 also likes the hips of the wild 

 rose and many kinds of ber- 

 ries; it sometimes makes its 

 summer home in a bird's nest, 

 which it roofs over to suit Track of white-footed mouse. 



, if ' mi Notice tail-track. 



itself. The young mice are 



carried, hanging to the mother's breasts. As an inhabitant of summer 

 cottages, white-foot is cunning and mischievous ; it pulls cotton out of quilts 

 takes covers off of jars, and as an explorer, is equal to the squirrel. I once 

 tried to rear some young deer mice by feeding them warm milk with a 

 pipette; although their eyes were not open, they invariably washed their 

 faces after each meal, showing that neatness was bred in the bone. This 

 mouse has a musical voice and often chirps as sweetly as a bird. Like 

 the house mouse it is more active at night. 



The meadow mouse is the one that makes its run-ways under the snow, 

 making strange corrugated patterns over the ground which attract our 

 attention in spring. It has a heavy body, short legs, short ears and short 

 tail. It is brownish or blackish in color. It sometimes digs burrows 

 straight into the ground, but more often makes its nest beneath sticks and 



