326 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



acorns, chinkapins, hazel-nuts, and corn ; and so there really seems to 

 be no necessity for bush-dwelling mice ever to return to the ground 

 when once they have taken up their quarters in a smilax thicket — 

 that is, return before the winter is over. 



In this my experience is quite the opposite to that of others who 

 have found underground retreats beneath the bush-nests, and have seen 

 the mice, when forced to leave the latter, take refuge in them. It is 

 possible, certainly, that these were burrows of the meadow-mouse 

 (Arvicola riparia), and it would be hard to prove, in a meadow every- 

 where tunneled by mice and shrews, that the presence of burrowings, 

 whether deep or shallow, beneath nests in bushes, was not merely a 

 coincidence ; and, again, I am quite sure the same tunnels are often 

 used in common by widely different species of small mammals. 



The stores of food for winter use are of much interest as connected 

 with the subject of hibernation ; but I can at present merely outline 

 what I have seen, and what conclusions I have reached from such ob- 

 servations. It can be truthfully said that, while the w T hite-footed mouse 

 is not a hibernating animal, nevertheless it frequently hibernates. In 

 other words, its prolonged sleeping, sometimes extending over several 

 weeks, depends not upon the temperature, for I have seen them scam- 

 pering over the snow when the mercury was nearly at zero, but upon 

 their access to the food they have laid up for w r inter use. Cut this off 

 and they will not starve, but pass into that curious torpid state which, 

 with many mammals, continues for the entire season. I have experi- 

 mented so frequently with them in regard to this, that I feel warranted 

 in saying that one wonderful capability of the creature is, to be able 

 to avoid starvation and its attendant horrors by optional hibernation. 



Why, it will probably be asked, do so many of these mice quit 

 their cozy quarters in or on the ground, and which have served them 

 every purpose, and take all this trouble to build a new home in the 

 bushes for the winter ? It has been suggested that the nest was worn 

 out, and better fitted for entomological research than for hespero- 

 moicl habitation. I had myself thought of this, but have never de- 

 tected such abundant evidences of this. disastrous condition as would 

 warrant the removal ; and certainly the fur of these creatures would 

 carry, in all cases, a sufficient number of acari to bring about, in a brief 

 space, a repetition of the plague. 



The supposed excessive dampness during autumn and winter of 

 many situations where the summer nests of the mice abound has also 

 been urged as a probable reason for the marked exodus that, as we 

 have seen, occurs on the approach of cooler and wetter weather ; but 

 the exposure to sudden summer showers would, in this respect, be more 

 objectionable than the steadier rains and gradual melting of snow dur- 

 ing winter ; when, as a matter of fact, they are less apt to suffer from 

 w;ilcr encroaching upon their nests than at other times — the frozen 

 condition of the rough surface tending to carry off the water and pre- 



