182 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Sub-Family — Arvicolin.«. 

 Characteristics. — Head moderately large, broader and deeper than in 

 the other sub-families ; ears short, generally hidden in the adjacent fur ; 

 incisors, nearly or quite as broad as long ; molars, six in each jaw ; snout 

 blunt ; body moderately robust ; tail short, sometimes not so long as the 

 head, usually thickly clothed with hair. 



Genus : Arvicola. — (Lancepede.) 



Characteristics. — Body small ; tail short, usually less than half the 

 length of the body, cylindrical, covered with hairs. Animals in this 

 genus burrow in the earth, and feed on grasses, bulbous roots, seeds and 

 grains ; sometimes omnivorous. They do not hibernate, but are active 

 through the winter, seeking their food through the deepest snows. 



The following remarks will apply to all the species found in this State. 

 The short-tailed field mice, included in the above genus, are of small 

 size, with shorter and heavier bodies than the true mice. Their food is 

 composed of grasses and other plants, with their seeds and roots, and 

 the bark of trees ; they are very injurious to the fai-mers, both by 

 destroying the plants in the grain-fields, the roots and stems of the 

 grasses used for hay, and by injuring the fruit trees, in gnawing off the 

 bark. 



Robert Kennicott* says: " The greatest mischief done by meadow 

 mice, is the gnawing of bark from fruit trees. The complaints are 

 constant and grievous, throughout the Northern States, of the destruction 

 of orchard and nursery trees by the various species of arvicolce. The 

 entire damage done by them in this way may be estimated, perhaps, at 

 millions of dollars. If any think this too large an estimate, let them 

 inquire, even in a small neighborhood, where much attention is paid to 

 fruit-growing, and it will be found that, wherever they abound, the 

 injuries committed by these pests are frequently among the most serious 

 difficulties encountered by the pomologist." ..." The mice are 

 most mischievous in winters of deep snow. It is usually thought that 

 they only knaw bark when no other food is to be obtained ; but it is more 

 probable that this is palatable to them at all times. Confined specimens, 

 while abundantly supplied with food of all kinds, ate the bark from twigs 

 placed in their cage. One reason why fruit trees are most girdled in 

 times of deep snow is, that the meadow mice can then better move 

 about at a distance from their burrows, being protected by the snow, 

 under which they construct numerous pathways, and are thus enabled to 

 travel comfortably in search of food, always to be obtained in abundance, 

 where there is any kind of perrennial grass, or the seeds of annual 



* Patent Office Import, 1856, page 85. 



