286 ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



cries at Rochester, New York, girdling the trunks of the trees above 

 ground and the roots below ground. 25 In 1920, field mice ruined 1500 

 trees in one orchard, did damage to the extent of $10,000 in another, 

 and $200,000 in one county, and girdled 1000 six-year-old pines on a 

 5-acre tract. 26 



The bean mouse (M. pennsylvanicus wahema) gathers and stores 

 large quantities of beans of Falcata conwsa, wild artichoke tubers 

 (Helianthus tuberosa), etc. These stores sometimes furnished the In- 

 dians and early explorers with food, but agriculture now has provided 

 these mice with a better food supply and they have become a pest in 

 some localities. 27 The Cascade large-footed mouse (M. richardsoni 

 arviculoides} eats many kinds of native plants, a list of which has 

 been published. 28 Texas stomachs of Louisiana field mice (M. ludo- 

 vicianus) contained only green vegetation. 29 Numerous caches of mint 

 bulbs were found in the runways of the Townsend field mice (M. 

 townsendii}^ Least field mouse (M. minor): "summer food appar- 

 ently consists entirely of green vegetable matter, of which Artemisia 

 dracunculoides seems to be particularly favored. The contents of a 

 storehouse of this species in autumn weighed 19% pounds, consisting 

 of wheat heads, 29 per cent; Liotris punctata bulbs, 39 per cent; juni- 

 per berries and galls, 7 per cent; Allium stellatum bulbs, 6 per cent; 

 Psoralia, Helianthus and Artemisia, 7 per cent. Another store, weigh- 

 ing 24^ pounds, contained Taraxacum erythrospermum roots, 85 per 

 cent; Convolvulus sepium roots, 13 per cent; Sisyrhinchiurn, 2 per cent. 

 Others included Solidago, Geum, Aster and Calamovilfa. One of 2 l / 2 

 gallons in a rye field contained rye heads, 94 per cent. One in an oat 

 field contained oat spikelets, 93 per cent. One beneath oaks contained 

 acorns, 83 per cent; roots, 17 per cent. 31 



The natural food of the pallid field mouse (Lagiirus pallidus) is 

 largely silver sage and blazing star, but it takes also grass and other 



25 Lantz, An economic study of field mice, U. S. Biol. Surv., Bull. No. 31, pp. 

 24-37, 1909. 



26 Silver, Mouse control in field and orchard, Farmers' Bull., No. 1397, 1924. 



27 Bailey, Biological survey of North Dakota, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 49, p. 94, 

 1926; Identity of the bean mouse of Lewis and Clark, Journ. Mammalogy, i, 70-72, 

 1909. Gilmore, Food stored by the bean mouse, Journ. Mammalogy,^ I, 157, 1920. 



28 Taylor and Shaw, Mammals and Birds of Mount Rainier National Park, p. 76, 

 1927. 



29 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 25, pp. 119-120, 1905. 



30 Couch, Storing habits of Microtus townsendii, Journ. Mammalogy, vi, 200, 1925. 

 81 Criddle, The habits of Microtus minor in Manitoba, Journ. Mammalogy, vii, 



193-200, 1927. 



