White-footed Mouse 
Although the name wood mouse is not much used for this animal, 
it has always seemed to me more suitable than any other, for it makes 
its home in the woods at all times and seasons; only a comparatively 
small proportion of them, in this part of New England, live in the fields, 
tempted by the ripe corn and other provender which the woods fail 
to supply. Wood mouse is the name | first heard it called by, and 
is apparently the only one ever given it in this immediate region. 
Deer mouse is another name frequently given to our species, either 
because of its speed or the colour of its fur. 
The white-footed mouse does not seem to be at all particular 
what kind of woods it inhabits; evergreens and hardwoods, and 
thickets of blueberry bushes are alike suited to its taste; sometimes, 
indeed, a lonely old tree, standing by itself on a hillside, will harbour 
a family. They make their homes in the hollow roots and branches 
or knot holes, sometimes at a considerable height above the ground. 
In summer they appropriate the nests of song birds, in bushes 
and low trees, fitting them up for use, just as squirrels do those of 
hawks and crows. It appears probable, moreover, that they are not 
over scrupulous in the mattter of waiting for the rightful owners to 
depart before taking possession, as they are great lovers of fresh 
meat and have often been caught in the act of devouring both eggs 
and young birds. 
They are said sometimes to fashion nests of their own among 
the branches, beginning with a platform of loose twigs laid cross- 
wise for a foundation. Their lives, in fact, are pretty closely copied 
after those of the squirrels. Their diet is almost identical; nuts, 
berries, and grain being what they chiefly depend on. 
Like squirrels, they often find a way into granaries and farm- 
houses in search of food, particularly in the winter, when times are 
hard, for though they lay up generous stores of nuts and seeds and 
hibernate to a certain extent, large numbers of them are up and doing 
at all times in spite of the weather, gathering seeds here and there, 
and gleaning whatever scraps of meat may be left by the larger flesh 
eaters of the woods, and gnawing hungrily at any pieces of bone 
they may run across. 
The great bleached and half prostrate stalks of the garget still 
retain scattered berries, shrivelled and frozen to be sure, but packed 
with seeds which the wood mice evidently find palatable, as they 
make a point of gathering them every winter. 
They also climb for rose-hips and red alder berries and a little 
132 




