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Home Nature-Study Course. 



White-footed or Deer Mouse. 



short tail; it is brownish or blackish in color. It sometimes digs burrows straight 

 into the ground for a nest, but more often makes its nest beneath sticks and stones, 

 and especially beneath stacks of corn and grain. It is the nest of the field mouse 

 which the bumble-bee so often takes possession of after it is deserted. Field mice 

 make their passages through the grass all summer in quest of food; in winter 

 they constantly extend their runways underneath the snow, hunting for seeds 

 and also feeding upon the bark of trees and shrubs. This mouse is a good fighter, 

 sitting up like a woodchuck and facing its enemy bravely. It needs to be courageous 

 for it is preyed upon by almost everything that feeds upon small animals; the hawks 

 and owls especially are its enemies. It is well for the farmer that these mice have 

 so many enemies for they multiply rapidly, and would otherwise soon over-run 

 and destroy the grain fields. The field mouse is an excellent swimmer. 



The White-footed or Deer 

 Mouse. — This beautiful little crea- 

 ture may be trapped and studied, 

 but it should be treated with great 

 consideration or it may die of 

 fright. It is found almost ex- 

 clusively in the woods, although 

 it sometimes comes out in the 

 field for the grain harvest and 

 finds refuge in places where corn 

 is stored; it does almost no harm 

 or damage of any kind. The 

 deer mouse is very different in 

 appearance from the meadow mouse. Its ears are very large, its eyes large and 

 full and its tail very long. It is fawn-color or brown above, but its feet and under- 

 sides of the body are pure white. It makes its nest in hollow trees and limbs, 

 sometimes quite high from the ground; in this nest it stores nuts for winter. 

 We once found two quarts of shelled beech nuts in such a nest. The deer mice 

 also like the red hips of the wild rose and many kinds of berries, in fact their 

 food is almost identical with that of the squirrel. The deer mouse sometimes makes 

 its summer nest in a bird's nest which it roofs over to suit itself. It is exquisitely 

 neat in its habits, and has none of the disagreeable odor of the house mouse. The 

 young mice are carried hanging to the mother's breast. We once tried to rear 

 some young deer mice by feeding them warm milk with a pipette; although they 

 were still blind they invariably washed their faces after each meal. For an inter- 

 esting study of the deer mice see Tookhees the 'Fraid One in " Secrets of the 

 Woods." 



Jumping Mice. — These are not true mice but are closely allied to the kangaroo 

 rat of the deserts; (see Lives of the Hunted). There are two species of jumping 

 mice met with occasionally in our State; one of these is the meadow species, and 

 the other is a larger species found in the woods, this latter being from eight to ten 

 inches in length. Both species are yellowish in color and can be easily distinguished 

 from the rue mice, because their hind legs are so much developed, and the hind 

 feet almost twice as long as the front feet. When frightened they make very long 

 and high jumps. The two species may be distinguished not only by the larger 

 size of the wood mouse but also by its white-tipped tail. Both the species are white 

 underneath and have white legs. They also are provided with cheek pouches in 

 which they carry their food, as do the chipmunks. The meadow species is much 

 more common than is the wood species, and it is more often seen after the meadows 



