Prairie Deermouse 503 



They number 5 or 6, 5 being the usual Htter of an adult young 

 mother. In their growth and development they present no 

 very obvious difference to the young of arcticus. 



Some of these Mice were kept captive by Kennicott, who 

 says: *'I placed a female with 5 young, but a few days old, in 

 a cage, and observing that 6 of the mother's mammae had been 

 sucked, I placed another, taken from a younger litter, with her, 

 which, to my surprise, she adopted; and several weeks after- 

 ward, they having in the meanwhile taken a journey of many 

 miles, I heard that this interesting little family, including the 

 changeling, were all alive and well. This old female constructed 

 the usual globular nest of the cotton and grass placed in the 

 cage; and, upon looking into this, I found the young attached 

 to her teats in every instance, except when I examined im- 

 mediately after she had been out to eat, and before they had 

 resumed their accustomed places. It is only when they are 

 quite small, however, that the young remain so constantly 

 attached to the mammae." 



This pleasant picture, unfortunately, is clouded by the 

 disagreeable thought that these Mice are cannibal even to the 

 extent of eating their own young when not furnished with 

 flesh meat. 



As soon as they are able to take care of themselves, that is 

 when about a month or six weeks old, the young scatter from 

 the home-nest, leaving mother and father ( t) to live for a time 

 each the life of a young recluse. 



The Baird Mouse is strictly nocturnal, and, indeed, is in strict- 

 all its habits an ordinary Deermouse that has adapted itself J°J;^.^ 

 to prairie life. 



Its food is briefly every kind of seed and nut found on the food 

 prairies, doubtless also insects, birds' eggs, and flesh, when 

 obtainable, and failing all these, it can live on herbage and 

 leaves. 



The carnivorous record given by Kennicott is rather 

 gruesome. 



