WILD-MICE. 67 



each was a large central chamber or nest, thus showing an 

 adaptation to circumstances which greatly interested me. 



The food-supply in the meadow evidently was abun- 

 dant, hence these mice remained; but the ground was 

 too wet to admit of underground retreats, so these half- 

 rotten logs had been utilized, and proved in every way 

 adapted to their wants. I could not determine what 

 constituted the food of these mice, but suppose it to have 

 been, in part, seeds of the reeds and coarse grasses ; and 

 it is not improbable, when these were not obtainable, that 

 they fed upon animal food. My attention was called to 

 the probability of this, from the fact that at every low 

 tide many very small fishes were left in little puddles, 

 and as these nearly dried away before the tide returned, 

 it was practicable for the mice to have caught these fishes. 

 Although I have often watched for some evidence of 

 this, I never saw a mouse go a-fishing; but then this 

 proves nothing, for these meadow-mice are far more 

 active by night than by day, and when I was away they 

 could readily have caught an abundance of these fishes. 



Unless the weather is extremely cold, the meadow- 

 mice do not hibernate. They simply prepare for cold 

 snaps by making roomy subterranean chambers, and line 

 them with fine grasses. From these they sally forth at 

 midday, if there is any sunshine, and find plenty of food 

 in the seeds of the rank grass-growths that surround their 

 chosen haunts. The food that they store for winter use 

 is inconsiderable, and probably is consumed soon after it 

 is placed in the magazines. Of course, I am speaking 

 only of the mice as I have observed them in the neigh- 

 boring meadows. 



Of our few remaining mammals, perhaps none have 

 suffered less from the encroachment of man than the 



