THE MAMMALS OF NEW JERSEY. 69 
generally regarded as an injurious species, Mr. $8. N. Rhoads, in 
an able article in the American Naturalist, 1898, p. 571, demon- 
strates that it has been much maligned. After an exhaustive 
study, he shows that 90 to 100 per cent. of the food of the 
meadow mouse is vegetable, 60 to 80 per cent. consisting of 
grasses, etc., almost exclusively coarse species like rushes, sedges, 
salt grass (Spartina) and Indian grass (Andropogon), 5 to 10 
per cent. roots, and I to 5 per cent. grain and seeds. “The arable 
land,’ says Mr. Rhoads, “of every well-kept and cultivated farm 
or nursery, whether in pasture, grass, grain, orchard, truck or 
young trees, is practically deserted by this mouse. In short, it 
can only exist where a food supply is found in almost every in- 
stance synonymous with neglect and waste on the part of the 
farmer. It very rarely disturbs seeds, fruits, tubers, roots or 
vegetables during the growing season, and does little damage in 
winter to those buried in the ground, most of the ravages in these 
cases being the work of the pine mouse (Microtus pinetorum), 
and the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus ).” 
Mr. Rhoads refers to the claims of utility advanced in behalf’ 
of the large hawks and owls, on the ground that they destroy so 
many “injurious” meadow mice, but shows further that such 
prolific animals as these meadow mice might soon, from sheer 
overcrowding, be forced to overrun the cultivated grounds and 
do damage that they do not now think of, should any of the 
natural checks that Nature places upon their increase be removed. 
Such occurrences are matters of record in the old world where 
predacious birds have been destroyed. 
The meadow mice are active all the year and on a warm day 
in winter we may see them passing along their more exposed sur- 
face runways with wonderful rapidity or occasionally venturing 
forth and sitting hunched up into little balls of brown fur, while 
they nibble some choice morsel. 
Arvicola riparia Abbott, Cook’s Geol. of N. J., 1868, p. 758.— 
Abbott, A Naturalist’s Rambles, 1885, p. 450. 
Microtus pennsylvanicus Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 
1897, p. 26.—Rhoads, Mam. Pa. and N. J., 1903, p. 97. 
