Arctic Deermouse 497 



{artemisice) with a family of 4 young. They were about ten 

 days old, I should guess. One of them clung to her teat and 

 was dragged about by her mother as she dodged among our 

 packages. Eventually she ran off with it into the bushes. 

 I put the others into the hole where she hid, and in due time 

 she returned and cared for them. 



The young are blind till about two weeks old. As soon as 

 they are able to take care of themselves, that is when two- 

 thirds grown and about a month old, they quit the parental 

 nest, and, obedient to a necessary instinct, scatter to live, for a 

 time at least, a solitary life, leaving the parents free to set about 

 the production of a new brood. Analogy would indicate that 

 at the age of three or four months they begin to reproduce. 



The large black eyes, long whiskers, and expansive ears noc- 

 all tell a story of adaptation to a life of dim light. The Deer- '^^'^"^'^ 

 mouse is nocturnal. Very rarely, indeed, can one camp in the 

 woods of Manitoba without finding signs next morning that 

 Deermice have been about the camp, running over the 

 sleepers, tickling their faces with their cold feet, and picking 

 up such scraps as are left in reach. But one never sees the 

 Deermouse while the sun is high, unless it has been disturbed 

 in its retreat. 



In this it differs from the Meadow-mice. They come 

 out at all times, but are screened in their tunnel runways, while 

 the Deermouse seems to go where it will in the woods, high and 

 low, untrammelled by a customary route and without any 

 semblance of the runway habit, even when the ground is 

 covered with snow. 



This Deermouse is essentially a nut-and-seed eater when food 

 compared with the grass-eating Meadow-mice. As already 

 recognized, is has highly developed the habit of storing up 

 food for the winter. As the species does not hibernate, and 

 cannot flourish on such coarse provender as will satisfy the 

 Meadow-mice, it needs a great store of the finest food-stufi^s 

 as well as a warm winter nest. 



