MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA. 197 




\ Nose = 
; i}, | Nose | Nose | Hind | Fore ae: Gea fo. 
No ate Tail. lto ear.|toeye.| foot. | foot. | Date 
SR s00 sal. sO Ni On94  OL455 0570) |) OC3O nhs sai a July, 1885. 
OG Teas GOR lee ZO ree ac |eeraars ORG OUR ere ols esca. ot= ? July, 1885 
(mutilated) 
ee) ae DOD) e900) | oceae aby aes 0s 0.38 | male | July, 1885 
(mutilated) 
ATG SHBON LOR OOO TOL DO WO m0. alec vc. rate female | July 7, 1885. 
‘‘It feeds upon beechnuts and a variety of seeds, berries, and 
roots, and also, at certain times in the winter season, upon the 
bark of shrubs and trees. 
‘‘The beech, maple, ash, and bass suffer most severely from 
its attacks, and in the order named. The bark is generally 
removed in irregular areas from the large roots just above the 
ground; but sometimes saplings, and even trees a foot or more 
in diameter are completely girdled to the hight of three or 
four feet. The damage thus done to our deciduous groves is 
sometimes great, but does not compare with the ravages com- 
mitted by the field mouse (Arvicola riparius). 
‘The wood mouse is terrestrial, like the other members of the 
Arvicoline series, and commonly lives in burrows in the ground. 
It sometimes makes regular runways similar to those of the 
field mouse, but usually travels freely over the surface. 
‘‘The nest of the red-backed mouse is usually in this [ Adiron- 
dack] region, placed in a burrow in the earth, although it is 
sometimes found ina half decayed log or under the roots of a 
stump.”—Mammals of the Adirondacks, p. 271. 
GENUS ARVICOLA, LACEPEDE. 
The genus is employed in the restricted sense as indicated by 
Coues. 
Size moderate or rather large; form stout and clumsy; feet 
and tail short. the latter densely covered with hair. Muzzle 
blunt and covered with fur, except the small nasal pads. The 
eyes are small, and situated about half way between the muzzle 
and the hidden ears, which have a large antitragus. The inci- 
sors are not grooved, broad. Molars 3—3, prismatic; the 
prisms are very acute, the anterior upper one having five 
‘prisms, of which one is anterior, the following ones arranged 
alternately ; the middle molar has four prisms, one being ante- 
rior and two exterior ; posterior upper molar with (apparently) 
four to seven prisms, the variability arising from the greater 
