MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA. 



197 



"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 in a 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 - |, 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 



