SECRETARY'S REPORT. 183 



plants. Aided by the snow, too, they climb up at the sides of the trees, 

 to "•naw the bark, at a considerable height from the ground. Rabbits 

 are often accused of gnawing bark from trees, when the mischief has 

 really been done by meadow mice. Not a little injury do they do 

 vegetables of all kinds, destroying young plants of pease, beans, cabbages, 

 &c., as well as digging up seeds of all sorts, and gnawing potatoes, beets, 

 and other roots ; in short, the catalogue of their depredations is endless." 

 AVith their exceeding fecundity the meadow mice would become 

 unbearably numerous were it not for their gredt number of enemies, 

 among which the butcher bird (Lanius horeaUs.) The owls, snakes 

 and weasels are particularly active. Domestic cats are very fond of 

 them, and destroy great numbers. The snakes, if protected by the 

 farmer, and they should be, would do much to keep these pests reduced, 

 in numbers. They can readily enter the burrows of the mice, and 

 possessing voracious appetites, destroy great numbers ; but the farmer, 

 the moment he sees a snake, no matter if it is perfectly harmless, (and 

 all our snakes are, with the exception of the rattlesnake,) kills it ; thus 

 destroying one of his greatest benefactors, living as it does on insects 

 principally, but often catching these mice. 



The meadow mice are often carried to the barns and granaries in hay 

 and grain, where they soon make their homes, destroying the hay by 

 biting it up into fragments, and the grain, by eating the germ. 



Arvicola gapperi, (Vigors.) — Red-backed Mouse. 



This small species is common in this State. It prefers the neighbor- 

 hood of a swamp or meadow, and is an excellent swimmer. Not 

 having specimens of this and the three following species, by me, I 

 borrow the descriptions given by Prof. Baird. 



Description. — " Size small and slender, about like that of the domestic 

 mouse, 3| inches long ; skull about .9 of an inch ; ear large, two-thirds 

 the hind-foot ; prominent above the fur ; well and closely furred with 

 short hair ; antitragus large ; tail vertebra^, about twice as long as the 

 hind-foot ; back, with a broad sti'ipe of uniform bright rufous brown ; 

 sides sharply defined, yellowish gray, mixed with brown; muzzle 

 similar ; beneath, dull yellowish white ; tail sharply bicolor, grayish 

 and black mixed above, whitish beneath, dusky at the tip." 



DIMENSIONS. 



Length of head, 1 inch. 



Length of head and body, Z\ inches. 



Length of tail to end of vertebrae, If inches. 



Length of tail to end of hairs at tip, 1§ inches. 



Length of hind-foot, | of an inch. 



Length of fore-foot, f of an inch. 



