494 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



ENVIRON- Its favourite surroundings are in or near timber or build- 



MENT 



ings; any dry place where it can climb above ground seems to 

 please it, and every settler's home and barn has a population 

 of these Mice, except, perhaps, in some of the older regions 

 where the imported House-mouse of Europe has arrived and 

 driven the natives farther back. 



HOME- I have no positive evidence on the extent of its individual 



wanderings, but it is not known to migrate, so probably its 

 life may be spent within one hundred feet of its den. 



t^^^'r^ It is much less abundant than the Meadow-mouse, but I 



DANCE ^ \ 



have commonly seen half-a-dozen killed every week in our 

 one-roomed shanty without visibly reducing the numbers. I 

 suppose that every barn near the woods has at least two pairs 

 about it, and that every group of farm-buildings in Manitoba 

 has a dozen pairs among its permanent population. 



sociABiL- Although many of this species are sometimes found together 



ITY 



in a small locality, they are attracted by favourable conditions, 

 not by each other's company. So far as I have seen, they do not 

 nest in colonies, move in bodies, unite their efforts in any enter- 

 prise, or otherwise profit by each other's company, so can scarcely 

 be called sociable. One pair in each burrow or nest is the rule. 



INTER- The well-marked livery and long tail of the species are no 



NicA- doubt directive marks of importance. Its senses of smell, hear- 



^^°^ ing, and touch are acute and play an obscure but obvious part. 



The continuous whiskering of strange objects is suggestive of 



a highly developed system of whisker-touch, but the species 



seems to neglect nomeans of conveying its impressions to its kin. 



The peculiar signalling of Deermice is a subject to which 



my attention has been called by M. A. Walton, the Hermit.^ 



He considers that drumming with the feet is the chief means 



employed by the New England species. I have often seen the 



performance. 



* A Hermit's Wild Friends, 1905, p. 122. 



