WILD-MICE. 71 



ground with as much ease and rapidity as other mice. 

 If pursued, however, and extra speed is required, then 

 its whole manner is changed, and it seems quite like an- 

 other animal. It takes enormous leaps, one after another, 

 with great rapidity, and, when the conditions are favor- 

 able, it distances most of its pursuers. Remarkable as 

 are the leaps made by this mouse, I have never seen them 

 clear " five or six feet at every spring," as described by 

 Godman. Without the means of determining this point, 

 I should judge that one half that distance was more 

 nearly correct. Here, perhaps, it is legitimate to ask the 

 question, Has their jumping power at all decreased ? It 

 is not unreasonable to suppose that such should be the 

 case, if the habit of jumping arose from the necessity of 

 eluding certain enemies which do not now exist in as 

 great numbers as formerly. Certainly, at present, in this 

 neighborhood, these mice have no more enemies than 

 the white-footed or the meadow mice, nor are they ap- 

 parently any more secure from the attacks of these ene- 

 mies, because they can jump a little faster than the others 

 can run. 



Godman remarks of this animal : " At the commence- 

 ment of cool weather, or about the time the frost sets in, 

 the jumping-mice go into their winter-quarters, where 

 they remain in a torpid state until the last of May or 1st 

 of June. They are dug up sometimes during winter 

 from a depth of twenty inches, being curiously disposed 

 in a ball of clay about an inch thick, and so completely 

 coiled into a globular form as to conceal the figure of the 

 animal entirely." My own observations have not been 

 in accordance with the above, so far as the "ball of 

 clay " is concerned. Such as I have found had well-built 

 nests of fine grass and bits of hornets' nests, placed in a 



