CHAPTER IX. 



FIELD MICE DESCRIPTION THE MEADOW MOOSE-THE MARSH 

 CAMPAGNOL THE HAIRY CAMPAGNOE OR COTTON RAT THE 

 WOOD-RAT THE LEMMING. THE BLACK RAT THE COMMON 

 MOUSE THE POUCHED RAT AND JUMPING MOUSE THE WOOD 

 CHUCK. QUEBEC, FRANKLIN, PARRY'S AND HOOD'S MARMOT. 

 THE PRAIRIE DOG, AND DESCRIPTION. 



FIELD MICE (Arvicolce). There are thirty-four known 

 species, though here we only enumerate those most likely to 

 be met with. 



Description. Color grayish-brown above ; yellowish lead 

 color below : eyes moderately large and prominent ; opening of 

 the ears large ; tail short and sparsely covered with hairs. 



THE MEADOW MOUSE (Arvicola riparius) is the most 

 common of this species : and at times they become so greatly 

 multiplied as to do much injury to the stacks of hay and 

 grain. They have their burrows in the banks of streams, and 

 under old stumps and logs ; and numerous furrows may be 

 seen in places where the little animals are plentiful along 

 the roots of the grass, forming lanes in which they may travel 

 in various directions from their burrows. Their nests are 

 sometimes constructed in their burrows, and are also found 

 at the season of hay harvest in great numbers among the 

 vegetation on the surface of the ground. Were it not for 

 the extraordinary fecundity possessed by these creatures, 

 producing six or eight at least three times a year, they would 

 long ago have become extinct, for the owl, the hawk, the fox, 

 the crow, the cat, &c., all combine to check their undue multi- 

 plication. 



THE MARSH CAMPAGNOL (Arvicola Floridanus) has been 

 partly described by Ord, further than which nothing definite 



