Jumping-mouse 597 



inches long, entering my traps. It was otherwise in good 

 condition, though the end of the tail showed it had been a long 

 time in this plight." 



If webbed feet made a swimmer, the Zapus should be as 

 much at home in the water as the Muskrat, but apparently 

 it is far from it. I never heard of or saw one swimming, and 

 two or three times in Manitoba I found them drowned in 

 spring-holes, whence they might have escaped by swimming 

 twenty-four miserable little inches. 



In the Adirondacks, according to Merriam, the Zapus food 

 feeds upon beach nuts and various seeds and berries. In 

 Manitoba I think that the acorns are important in its diet. 



Audubon and Bachman state :^' "This species, feeding 

 on small seeds, does very little injury to the farmer * * * it is 

 fond of the seeds of several species o{ Amaranthus, the pigweed 

 {Ambrosia), burr-marigold, beggar or sheep ticks {Bidens), 

 all of which are regarded as pests." 



Kennicott found" the food of this species to "consist 

 chiefly of herbaceous plants with their seeds, and the seeds and 

 nuts of trees when it inhabits the woods. In cultivated fields, 

 it devours grain." E. Slade adds^^ to its food list, buds, leaves, 

 twigs, bark, berries, and grass, in fact, every kind of vegetable 

 growth. Although no one has yet accused the Jumper of 

 being an habitual carnivore or a cannibal, I shall be greatly 

 surprised if it escapes the common reputation of all Mice. 



The storage habit was highly developed in the specimens stor- 

 kept captive by the naturalists Audubon and Bachman, who habit 

 say i^" " We observed that everything that was put into their cage, 

 however great might be the quantity, was stored away in their 

 holes before the next morning. We fed them on wheat, maze, 

 and buckwheat. They gave the preference to the latter, and 

 we observed that when they had filled their storehouse with a 



" Quad. N. A., 1849, Vol. II, p. 255. " Quad. 111., 1857, p. 96. 



^ Mam. Adir., 1884, p. 292. =** Loc. cit., p. 254. 



