WILD MICE. 81 
an enormous number, and keep up the slaughter through 
the whole year; for when the loggerhead shrike retreats 
southward in the autumn, the great northern shrike comes 
from British America to supply his place through the win- 
ter. Then all the hawks, from the nimble little sharp-shin- 
ned to the great swooping buzzard, prey upon mice, and 
in winter hover day after day over the knolls where they 
have been driven by floods in the surrounding lowlands, 
pouncing upon every one that is imprudent enough to 
show his black eyes above ground. As for the marsh- 
hawk, it regularly quarters the low fields like a harrier, and 
eats little but mice. The owls, too, are constantly after 
them, hunting them day and night, on the prairies and in 
the woods, esteeming them fine food for the four owlets in 
the hollow tree hard by; while the sand-hill crane and 
some of the herons make a regular business of seeking the 
underground homes, and digging out the timorous fugitives 
with their pick-axe beaks. In addition to all the rest, the 
farmer everywhere persecutes the mouse, as a pest to his, 
orchards and crops. 
Has the poor little animal, then, no friends whatever ? 
Very few, except his own endurance and cunning; yet he 
is already so numerous, and increases so rapidly, that all his 
enemies have not been able to rid the earth of lim, but 
6 
