WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



These curious little paths, branching here and 

 there, and crossing one another in all directions, 

 are the runways of the field-mice, along which 

 they go, mostly after sunset, to visit one another 

 or bring home their plunder; for the thieving little 

 gray -coats of our cupboards, whose bright eyes 

 glance at us from behind the cheese-box, recall in 

 their now naughty tricks the natural and innocent 

 stratagems of their wild ancestors. This plague of 

 the neat housekeeper was originally a native of 

 some Eastern country, but has now spread all over 

 the world and made himself altogether too much 

 at home wherever civilized men have established 

 themselves. In this country, moreover, he has 

 taken to the fields in many places, and dwells there, 

 under stacks of corn and in similar places, like a 

 wild mouse; but he is rarely if ever seen in the 

 woods. In this wild life he is changing and devel- 

 oping local varieties of great interest to the thought- 

 ful naturalist. 



As for our native American wild wood-mice, a 

 catalogue of all the different kinds known in the 

 whole of the United States would be a long one; 

 and there are, perhaps, a score or more species and 

 subspecies east of the Mississippi River. 



They are comprised in two families, the Zapo- 

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