Oldfield Mouse 
Range. Central and Western Florida, represented in Georgia and 
elsewhere in Florida by related species and varieties and on 
the prairies of the upper Mississippi by the closely allied prairie 
mouse. (See below.) 
These are the smallest and shortest-tailed of our white-footed 
mice and with the exception of the prairie mouse of the upper 
Mississippi Valley they are residents of our South Atlantic States. 
They appear to be more animals of the open ground, as con- 
irasted with the last group, which are essentially inhabitants of 
woodland. 
The Florida oldfield mouse is said by Mr. Bangs to ‘‘live 
in fields and open places and probably before so much of its 
range was under cultivation was restricted to sandhills and open 
drier prairies of interior Florida.” The allied beach mouse, one 
of our most beautiful animals, ‘‘is confined entirely to the sandy 
beaches and adjacent sandhills of the east coast of Florida. Its 
life depends on the sea oats (Unzola) and it is never found where 
that plant does not grow. It is very abundant in favourable 
places and its presence can always be detected by the little foot- 
prints which show distinctly in the white sand around the tufts 
of sea oats.” (Bangs.) 
The dark-coloured Northern representative of this group, the 
prairie mouse, is quite as much an inhabitant of the open, and 
bears the same relationship to the common white-footed mouse 
of this region as does the prairie field mouse to the common 
field mouse. 
Mr. Kennicott states that the prairie mouse in the open prairie 
makes burrows in the ground at the extremities of which the nest 
is situated; but in cultivated districts often frequents corn shocks 
and nests therein. 
Related Species and Varieties of the Oldfield 
Mouse 
1. Oldfield Mouse. Peromyscus subgriseus (Chapman).  Descrip- 
tion and range as above. 
2. Rhoads’ Oldfield Mouse. PP. subgriseus rhoadsi Bangs. 
Yellower than the above. 
Range. Western Florida (Tampa Bay). 
3. Georgia Oldfield Mouse. P. subgriseus baliolus Bangs. Much 
darker, with a decided dark dorsal stripe, tail nearly black. 
Range. Sand hills of northern Georgia. 
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