60 AMERICAN LONG-TAILED FIELD MOUSE. 



destruction of the short-tailed field mouse, which 

 likewise commits great havoc in fields and plan- 

 tations. When the Count de Buffon first prac- 

 tised this experiment, he desired that all the field 

 mice thus taken in traps might be brought to 

 him, and found with astonishment, that above 

 100 were taken each day from a piece of ground 

 consisting only of about forty French arpents. 

 From the 15th of November to the 8th of De- 

 cember above two thousand were destroyed in 

 this manner. When the frost becomes severe, 

 they retire into their holes, and feed on the stores 

 they have collected. They abound, like many 

 other animals of this genus, chiefly in autumn, 

 and are far less common in the spring ; for if pro- 

 visions happen to fail them in the winter, it is 

 thought that they destroy each other ; a circum- 

 stance which is known occasionally to take place 

 in many other species. 



The long-tailed field mouse is a very prolific 

 animal, breeding more than once a year, and 

 often producing litters of ten at a time. In one 

 of their holes have been found two females, with 

 twenty young. Specimens have sometimes been 

 seen perfectly white, with red eyes. 



Far. ? 



AMERICAN LONG-TAILED FIELD MOUSE. 



Mr. Pennant adds this to the former species, 

 imagining it to be a variety. It is similar in 



