Red-backed Vole 509 



The specimens from Portland, N. D., prove to be of the 

 well-marked sub-species," loringi. Pembina and Carberry 

 specimens are, according to Bailey, intermediate between 

 loringi and the type. Kenora and Norway House specimens, 

 on the other hand, are true gapperi, so that we may consider 

 the habits of all the Manitoba Red-backed Voles under one 

 head. 



This species is a Meadow-mouse that has taken to the en- 



• -1 J 1 J L f VIRON- 



woods, abandonmg at the same time the mud-coloured hue or ment 

 Microtus for the rich chestnut-reddish that harmonizes admir- 

 ably with the dead leaves that carpet its home-land. In 

 Keewatin Preble found ^ that " Mossy spruce woods seemed to 

 be their favourite habitat, but we also frequently trapped them 

 in deciduous or mixed woods, and occasionally in willow 

 thickets or swamps." 



The only evidences I have on the home-range of the home- 



..... UUM'" RANGE 



species are those of analogy among its kindred, probabilities, 

 and the fact that I have found it living in very small isolated 

 clumps of timber, all of which tends to prove a very small 

 home locality for each individual, less, I imagine, than one 

 hundred feet across. Evidence pointing to a very different 

 conclusion, however, is cited in the paragraph on drink. 



This animal is much less abundant than the Common abun-^ 

 Meadow-mouse or Microtus. Even in the most favoured 

 localities its number cannot be one-tenth of those of the 

 Meadow-mouse. Along the heavily timbered bottomlands at 

 Breckenridge, Minn., Kennicott found it' more numerous 

 than any other mammal in an equal area, except Microtus 

 austerus, in northern Illinois. He considered it rare at Lati- 

 tude 50 degrees on the Red River, and at Carberry I did not 

 see more than three or four each year. Since it is a woodland 

 species, it is decreasing with the clearing of the forests. 



« Proc. Biol. Soc, Washington, May 13, 1897, p. 125. 



^ N. A. Fauna, No. 22, 1902, p. 51. 



« Quad. 111., Pat. Off. Rep. (for 1857), 1858, p. 90. 



