MAMMALS. 63 



over the surface of the ground, and these become hardened and 

 throughout the winter are avenues of travel and food supply as long 

 as the snow lasts. Many winter nests are built on the surface of the 

 ground and occupied until the snow disappears, when the occupants 

 are again forced to their underground dwellings for protection. The 

 furry coats of these mice become dense and a beautiful light gray 

 during the winter, but the animals do not become fat or show any 

 signs of hibernation. In summer the heavy winter coats are changed 

 for a much thinner and harsher coat of a darker gray color that 

 blends well with the shadows of the half-concealed runways. 



Deummond Meadow Mouse: Microtus drv/tnmondi (xVudubon and 

 Bachman). — These little dark brownish-gray meadow mice with mod- 

 erately short tapering tails are common in the open country about 

 St. Mary Lake, along Swiftcurrent Creek, between Sherburne and 

 McDermott Lakes, at Summit, and on the Big Prairie in tlie Nortli 

 Fork of the Flatliead Valley, where specimens have been taken, 

 but they undoul)tedly have a much more general range^ over the 

 park in suitable localities. They live in meadows and other grassy 

 places generally, but are sometimes found in wet marshes- and 

 along the margins of streams and lakes. They are not usually found 

 in tlie timber, except as they follow meadows or open strips of coun- 

 tr}^ In general habits they are more like the eastern meadow mouse, 

 to which they are related, and their runways and burrows may gen- 

 erally be found under the tall grass and dense vegetation of the more 

 fertile areas. Any naturalist should be able to go to a favorable look- 

 ing meadow or grassy slope and by parting the fallen grass, find the 

 little roadAvays and burrows of these mice, but these are rarely seen 

 by the person without the naturalist's training, unless by the farmer 

 in gathering his hay or grain. Out on the prairies, the mice quickly 

 gather under the haycocks or the shocks of grain-, and when these 

 are removed to the stack they are seen scampering in all directions. 

 While with other rodents they help to lay a heavy tribute on the 

 agricultural products of much of the country, here in the park the}^ 

 are practically harmless and are too obscure and unnoticed to form 

 even an interesting feature of the animal life. 



Rocky Mountain Muskrat : Fiber zihethieus osoyoosensis Lord. — 

 A few muskrats are found in most of the lakes and along the quieter 

 streams of Glacier Park, but nowhere have I found them so numerous 

 as they are out on the Plains and in the low country. A few- tracks 

 were seen around the edges of McDermott and Josephine Lakes and 

 along the river above Upper Waterton Lake, and in 1895 I trapped a 

 specimen in a beaver pond near Summit Station. Don Stevenson re- 

 ports a family of 11 cream-colored albinos, which he once trapped in 

 Swiftcurrent Lake. Their signs were seen along the Swiftcurrent 



