WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



forest trees, where it dwells in and about old stumps 

 and hollow trees, and does not fear to go about 

 by daylight. In the Alleghanies it extends along 

 the ridges southward through Pennsylvania, and 

 it also dwells in the swamps and hemlock woods 

 of the Catskills and the Hudson Highlands. 



Far more active and pleasing than these voles 

 are the deer-mice (Peromyscus) frequenting the 

 woods of the East and prairies of the West, where 

 the soil is dry. The rice-field mouse of the South 

 and two or three species of the Middle West belong 

 in this genus, but the most familiar one is the widely 

 distributed and everywhere plentiful white-footed 

 deer-mouse {Peromyscus americanus), which we 

 used to call Hesperomys leucopns. 



This white-foot is somewhat larger than a house- 

 mouse, measuring about three and one -quarter 

 inches from the tip of the nose to the root of the 

 tail, and the tail itself, which is thinl3^ haired, black 

 on top and ashy white beneath, is almost or quite 

 as long as the body. The hind-feet measure three- 

 quarters of an inch in length, but the fore-feet are 

 not half so large. 



This mouse has a lithe, slender form and quick 

 movement, and is an agile climber. Its eyes are 

 large and prominent, its nose sharp, and ears high, 



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