64 HARD FARE. 



in the jay, seems only partly developed in them ; in- 

 stead of carrying these supplies home, they hide them 

 in the nearest convenient place. I have known them 

 to carry a pint or more of hickory nuts and deposit 

 them in a pair of boots standing in the chamber of an 

 out-house. Near the chestnut-trees they will fill little 

 pocket-like depressions in the ground with chestnuts ; 

 in a grain field they carry the grain under stones ; 

 under some cover beneath cherry-trees they collect 

 great numbers of cherry-pits. Hence, when cold 

 weather comes, instead of staying at home like the 

 chipmunk, they gad about hither and thither looking 

 up their supplies. One may see their tracks on the 

 snow everywhere in the woods and fields and by the 

 roadside. The advantage of this way of living is that 

 it leads to activity, and probably to sociability. 



These wild mice are fond of bees and of honey, 

 and they apparently like nothing better than to be 

 allowed to take up their quarters in winter in some 

 vacant space in a hive of bees. A chamber just over 

 the bees seems to be preferred, as here they get the 

 benefit of the warmth generated by the insects. One 

 very cold winter I wrapped up one of my hives with 

 .my shawl. Before long I noticed that the shawl was 

 beginning to have a very torn and tattered appear- 

 ance. On examination, I found that a native mouse 

 had established itself in the top of the hive and had 

 levied a ruinous tax upon the shawl to make itself a 

 nest. Never was a fabric more completely reduced 

 into its original elements than were large sections of 



