180 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mus musculus, (Linn.)— Common Mouse. 



This species is the common house mouse ; its habits are well known. 

 Like the brown rat, this animal was introduced from Europe ; it is now 

 very thickly and generally distributed over this continent, wherever there 

 is a settlement, its great fecundity allowing it to thickly populate, in a 

 year or two, a large district. It has many enemies, fortunately, keeping 

 its numbers within a certain limit. The common mouse in this country 

 assumes the habits of the field mice, often living in burrows in the fields. 

 It often makes its home in the hay-mow, where it spoils the hay, biting 

 it up into fragments, and giving to it the offensive odor which this animal 

 has. Cattle refuse to eat the hay in which numbers of these vermin 

 live, in consequence of this odor. 



Description. — Head rather rounded, but not much so ; nose sharp ; 

 ears large, nearly naked ; body short and thick ; legs slender ; tail as 

 long as the body, with short hairs growing between the scales. Color : 

 above and on the sides the fur is gray at its base, tipped with brownish ; 

 beneath the body grayish-ash. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Length of head, | of an inch. 

 Length of head and body, 3.V inches. 

 Length of tail, 3| inches. 



Genus : Ilesperomys. — (Waterhouse.) 

 Characteristics. — Head, of moderate size, pointed to the muzzle ; eyes 

 large ; ears large and rounded, nearly naked ; body slender ; limbs slen- 

 der; feet provided with sharp, curved claws; tail cylindrical, slender, 

 with much longer hairs than in mus, the scales on the tail being nearly 

 concealed by them. 



Ilesperomys leucojjus, (Wagner.) — WnixE-FOOTED Mouse, Deer Mouse. — [Fig. 4.] 

 This species is very common in this State, and is nearly or quite as 

 generally diffused throughout the continent as the common mouse. Its 

 habits are well known, requiring but little mention here. It is very 

 active, and an excellent chmber, often making its home in a hollow tree, 

 thirty or forty feet from the ground. It is very troublesome to the 

 farmer, spoiling the hay in the mow, and the grain in the bin. I have 

 often seen it in dwellings, living like a common house mouse ; it does 

 some mischief in the nurseries and orchards, by gnawing the bark of the 

 trees ; this is most often the case in severe winters, when its food is 

 exhausted, or covered up in the snow. The White-footed Mouse builds 

 a large nest, often in the branches of a tree or bush ; it also often occupies 



