392 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



server is hardly aware of their presence. At Sagamore 

 Hill, for instance, except at haying time I rarely see the 

 swarming meadow mice, the much less plentiful pine 

 mice, or the little mole-shrews, alive, unless they happen 

 to drop into a pit or sunken area which has been dug at 

 one point to let light through a window into the cellar. 

 The much more graceful and attractive white-footed mice 

 and jumping mice are almost as rarely seen, though if 

 one does come across a jumping mouse it at once attracts 

 attention by its extraordinary leaps. The jumping mouse 

 hibernates, like the woodchuck; and so does the chip- 

 munk, though not always. The other little animals just 

 mentioned are abroad all winter, the meadow mice under 

 the snow, the white-footed mice, and often the shrews, 

 above the snow. The tell-tale snow, showing all the 

 tracks, betrays the hitherto unsuspected existence of many 

 little creatures; and the commonest marks upon it are 

 those of the rabbit and especially of the white-footed 

 mouse. The shrew walks or trots and makes alternate 

 footsteps in the snow. White-foot, on the contrary, always 

 jumps, whether going slow or fast, and his hind feet leave 

 their prints side by side, often with the mark where the 

 tail has dragged. I think white-foot is the most plenti- 

 ful of all our furred wild creatures, taken as a whole. 

 He climbs trees well; I have found his nest in an old 

 vireo's nest; but more often under stumps or boards. The 

 meadow mice often live in the marshes, and are entirely 

 at home in the water. 



The shrew-mouse which I most often find is a short- 

 tailed, rather thickset little creature, not wholly unlike 



