Oct. 27, 1882.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



363 



in turn by one or other of the upper reservoirs. The 

 point is one of apparently small importance, it is true ; 

 Ijut that is only because we fail to realise from our 

 human standpoint the intensity of the struggle for existence 

 between growing plants. Every flower which is rifled by 

 an ant thereby loses its one chance of producing ofTspring ; 

 so that only those flowers which escape these ubiquitous 

 little depredators can ever leave any descendants at all. 

 As a matter of fact, almost all honey-bearing flowers, when 

 one comes to examine them closely, show the most marvel- 

 lously minute devices for excluding the ants, many of them 

 so subtle and ingenious in their provisions as almost to 

 surpass belief. The reason is that any deviation from the 

 original type, however singular, would certainly be favoured 

 in the survival of the Attest if only it gave the plant one 

 extra chance of escaping such destructive pillage. 



I might go on to point out in detail how the flowers are 

 crowded into a long spiky head, so as to prove more attrac- 

 tive to the fertilising insects ; how they are armed with 

 stifl' prickles longer than the florets, so as to save them 

 from violent injury on the one hand, and to deter all but 

 certain long-lipped insects on the other ; and how man 

 Las made use of these prickly points for his own purposes 

 in fulling cloth, by consciously selecting the most hooked 

 varieties ; but I have said enough, I think, to show you 

 how interesting a plant the teasel is, and what are the 

 principles upon which its peculiarities must be separately 

 explained. Cut ofi its head carefully, and carry it home 

 to examine at your leisure ; and if you pull it to pieces 

 conscientiously, that will teach you a great deal more 

 about it than I could tell you in a week's talking. 



THE WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE, OR 

 DEER MOUSE. 



THERE are many persons who believe that all mice 

 found in the fields and meadows are simply "house 

 mice which hav.e run wild." On the contrary, they difler 

 so widely that they cannot even be admitted into the 

 genus mui, to which the common mouse belongs. 



The white-footed mouse is the J/csperomys leucopus of 

 modern zoologists. Some have seen fit to include in it a 

 sub-genus resperimus. It was first described by the eccen- 

 tric French naturalist Rafiuesque as the J/uscidus leucopus. 

 The meaning of the word Ilcsperomys is evening mouse, 

 and of leucopus white foot This species can be dis- 

 tinguished from the other mice of our fields and woods by 

 the following description : — Ears large ; tail slender, about 

 as long as the head and body, and thickly covered with 

 short hairs, no scales being visible like those of the common 

 mouse. Colour of the body above, yellowish brown to grey; 

 feet and lower parts of body, white. Tail distinctly bi- 

 colour ; that is, its upper part is the colour of the back, 

 and the lower portion white. Length of the head and 

 body, 2 1 to 31 inches ; length of tail generally equalling 

 the length of the head and body. 



The white-footed mouse is agile in its movements, and is 

 an expert climber. The first nest of this species I met 

 with in Pennsylvania was in a hollow htump, and was of a 

 rounded form, and composed of leaves, grasses, and moss. 

 Here they also nest under stone heaps, or logs, or in the 

 ground. In Kew Jersey it generally builds its nest in 

 thick briar bushes, several feet from the ground. These 

 are made also of moss and leaves, but are interwoven with 

 strips of fibrous bark, probably of the wild grape vine, to 

 make them stronger and more secure. The hole or place 

 of entrance to the nest is always at the bottom. These 



nests at first glance may readily be mistaken for those of 

 birds. On shaking the bush or nest you will see the little 

 inmates come forth and rapidly descend to the ground, and 

 conceal themselves amid the Ijushes and grass. Sometimes 

 you will observe several young adhering to the abdomen of 

 the mother. These she assists in keeping their hold by 

 pressing her tail ' against them as she climbs down the 

 stems of the briars. The female produces young two or 

 three times during the spring and summer, having from 

 three to six young at a birth. 



It has a habit of laying up little stores of grain and grass 

 seeds. In our state they are generally composed of wheat, 

 but in the South of rice. It is also fond of corn, but 

 eating the heart only and leaving the rest untouched. 

 This species is sometimes accused of destroying cabbage 

 plants and other young and tender vegetables, and of 

 gnawing the bark from young fruit-trees. It is doubtles? 

 true that this species is sometimes to blame, but the greater 

 amount of this damage, I think, is caused by the meadow- 

 mouse {Arvirola riparius, Ord), and the so-called "pine 

 mouse" {Arricola pinfitoriiiu, Le Conte). 



The white-footed mouse is of crepuscular and nocturnal 

 hal)its. ISfany of them fall prey to the diflereiit species of 

 owls, notably the screech owl {Sco/'.t (ifio, Linn.), as the 

 bones and fur of this mouse found in their ejected pellets 

 clearly show. It has a wide geographical range, being 

 found from Nova Scotia to Florida, and west to the Missis- 

 sippi River, and perhaps far beyond. — ScUnli/ic American. 



Cables on tuk West Coast of Aueuk-a. — The length 

 of cables and land lines worked by the West Coast of 

 America Telegraph Company is as follows : — Cables 

 (nautical miles) : Valparaiso to Serena, 2190.'5 ; Serena to 

 Caldera, 21.'>:M; Caldera to Autofagasta, 221) 00; Anto- 

 fagasta to Iquique, 2.'JO-.'iO ; Iquique to Arica, 128-35; 

 Arica to MoUendo, U6-42 ; Mollendo to Chorrillos, 510OS. 

 Land lines : Chorrillos to Lima, 1 1 00 ; Lima to Callao, 

 7-00—1,716 72. 



