74 FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 



thick forest on the Blue Kidge, by Mr. Spencer Trotter, of 

 Philadelphia. This nest, which second tenant and all is 

 given as the frontispiece, hung from the extremity of a 

 young tree a few feel: from the ground; and the mouse 

 had completely filled the inside with dry grass, leaving only 

 enough room to squeeze into a comfortable bed in the bot- 

 tom. The mouse was asleep when found, as is its habit in 

 the daytime, and moved away rather sluggishly. 



Not long ago, I received a pleasant letter from Mr. John 

 Burroughs, in which he said : " The other day I found the 

 nest of -the white- footed mouse. Going through the woods, 

 I paused by a red cedar, the top of which had been broken 

 off and lopped over till it touched the ground. It was dry, 

 and formed a very dense mass. I touched a match to it to 

 see it burn, when, just as the flames were creeping up into 

 it, out jumped or tumbled two white-footed mice, and made 

 off in opposite directions. I was just in time to see the 

 nest before the flames caught it a mass of fine dry grass, 

 about five feet from the ground, in the thickest part of the 

 cedar top." This was in the Catskills. 



From their tunnels, nests, and granaries, innumerable run- 

 ways, such as I spoke of before, traverse the neighborhood, 

 crossing those from other burrows, and forming a complete 

 net-work all over the region. The mice do not flock to- 



