128 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



com, of which they destroy a great quantity. This animal 

 is about four inches long, besides the tail, which is about an 

 inch more ; the head is roundish and blunt ; the fur is thick 

 and soft, the colour a kind of iron-grey on the back, the un- 

 der parts light grey. They are very numerous. A friend of 

 mine told me that once in the month of June, a mouse of 

 this kind, whose nest he had exposed by turning over a large 

 stone, was endeavouring to make her escape with three 

 young ones which clung cleverly to their mother's back, 

 holding with their teeth, and not retarding her progress in 

 the least. His admiration of the maternal care of the old 

 one was not, however, a sufficient inducement to prevent his 

 killing the whole four. There is another species of Field- 

 mouse (Mus Leucopus ? J, much smaller, of a lighter brown, 

 and with a tail considerably longer than the body. I have 

 never seen more than one specimen of it, and that I did not 

 preserve. 



