194 MAMMALIA. 



Since the foregoing was written, Mr. Elisha Slade, of Somerset, 

 Bristol County, Massachusetts, has favored me with a very in- 

 teresting and detailed account of the habits of this species, portions 

 of which are here reproduced. Mr. Slade says : " The Long-tailed 

 Jumping Mouse inhabits high land or low land, forest or pasture, 

 cultivated field or swamp, and appears to be equally at home in 

 either, and not numerous in any situation. It possesses a momen- 

 tary agility second to no other Rodent, and a muscular strength 

 of enormous power for so small a creature. When suddenly dis- 

 turbed it often moves away in a direct line, the first three or four 

 leaps being eight or ten feet in length ; but these distances rapidly 

 decline to about four feet, which are continued until it considers 

 itself out of danger. This is not always the case, however, for it 

 frequently takes an irregular course and jumps at diverse angles 

 for several successive leaps, keeping the same general direction or 

 changing at will. It can double, and quickly too, if pursued, and 

 by its manoeuvers and instantaneous squattings can, and often does, 

 elude a hawk or an owl ; and its spontaneous irregularities enable 

 it to escape being brained by a weasel, or swallowed whole by the 

 common black snake. ... It feeds upon the buds, leaves, and 

 twigs, of many kinds of plants ; upon seeds, grain, wild berries, 

 chestnuts, acorns, grass, and to some extent upon the bark of 

 shrubs. . . . As a rule, three litters are produced in a season, 

 each consisting of from two to four young." 



Barton, writing of this species in 1795, says: "Upon showing 

 my drawing of the animal to an intelligent Indian who is settled at 

 Oneida, he assured me that the same animal is very common at 

 that place. This Indian, who is a Mohegan, moreover said, that 

 in his language this Dipus is called Waiih pch Sous, which signifies 

 the C7'eatiire that jiunps or skips like a dceri" He also says : "It 

 often gets into the graneries of the Indians settled at Oneida, in 

 the State of New York, and proves very destructive to the Indian- 

 corn. ... I have not learned, with certainty, at what time 



