THE PESTS OF THE FARM. 85 



Should a stray adventurer make his appearance, I shall repeat 

 my inexpensive remedy, and am now congratulating myself on 

 having, for the present at least, extirpated the enemy." 



Included in the muridcs, and constituting a very large sub- 

 family, are the arvicolincc, the field-mice ; and in many locali- 

 ties their depredations have established them as serious pests. 

 In the Massachusetts Agricultural Report for 1861 I gave a 

 full account of their habits, and also in the United States Agri- 

 cultural Report for 1863, to which I would refer for interesting 

 facts concerning them. The field-mice are particularly injuri- 

 ous to plantations of young fruit-trees in winter, gnawing the 

 bark off the stems at the height of the snow, leaving a wound 

 which sometimes completely encircles the wood, which of course 

 is fatal to the life of the tree. They are also destructive in the 

 grain-fields and in granaries, and when introduced, in hay, 

 from the field into the barn, are very mischievous, gnawing the 

 fodder and cutting it into fragments, and impregnating the 

 whole mow with their peculiar odor. There are several species 

 of field-mice in this State, included in different genera, the most 

 mischievous of which are the short-tailed field-mice, arvicola. 

 These animals are easily recognized by their short, thick body ; 

 short tail, usually less than half the length of the body ; and 

 short, strong limbs. All the species of this group burrow in 

 the earth, or beneath the roots of a shrub or tussock of grass. 

 They all feed upon grasses, bulbous roots, seeds and grain ; they 

 do not hibernate, but are active through the winter, seeking 

 their food through the deepest snows. 



These short-tailed field-mice can hardly be seen without being 

 recognized, their peculiar form and habits giving them charac- 

 teristics not to be confounded with any other animals, except, 

 perhaps, the shrew-moles, which have forms somewhat similar 

 to those of the mice, but they have more diminutive eyes ; their 

 ears are hidden in the adjacent fur, and their heads are thinner 

 and more pointed. Care should be taken in destroying the 

 mice not to include in the general slaughter these shrews, for 

 they, with the moles, are eminently beneficial, their food con- 

 sisting of insects and larvas. If the teeth of both shrews and 

 moles be examined they will prove that vegetable food could 

 not form part of the animals' diet, for they are very small and 

 fine, and the strong, sharp, chisel-shaped incisors which all the 



