MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 55 



From their intricate tunnels under the leaf- 

 mold frequent burrows descend into the soil, 

 some of which are utilized as nesting places. 

 Nests are built also at the surface of the 

 ground, under fallen logs, brush-heaps, flat 

 stones, fences, or other shelter. The number 

 of young at a birth evidently averages less than 

 is usual in the genus Microtus, as is shown by 

 the small number of mammae ; but this is coun- 

 terbalanced by the safer underground exist- 

 ence; so that within their range pine mice are 

 about as abundant as other field-mice. 



Quick and Butler, writing of the food-habits 

 of the pine mouse in Indiana, state that it lives 

 upon the tender roots of young hickories, the 

 young sprouts of white clover, the fruit of the 

 red haw, and the tuberous roots of the wild 

 violet. These writers found all but the fruit 

 buried, some in deposits of a gallon in a burrow, 

 and the caches sometimes extending 18 inches 

 below the surface of the ground. Violet roots 

 predominated in these stores. Kennicott also 

 states that pine mice store acorns and nuts in 

 burrows for winter use. 



Living in concealment neither their presence 



