510 
pastured, and underbrush is lacking, clusters of pokeberry and 
clumps of hawthorn being about the only thicket growth to be seen. 
To a certain degree the fauna, too, is distinguished from that of the 
wooded bluffs by what it lacks rather than by what it comprises. 
Foxes and coons, with the larger mammals, are lacking, and the 
opossum is generally only a visitor in these groves. The gray 
squirrel is not found in them except in a semi-domesticated state in 
towns, and the chipmunk is seen in them only in the vicinity of the 
wooded bluffs. On the other hand, some wood-mice, shrews, voles, 
and perhaps house-mice may be found at any season, and are 
abundant there in winter. The fox-squirrels soon take possession 
of groves in considerable numbers if they are not disturbed, but 
more often they have been exterminated in such places. The open 
portions of the wood-lots are usually undermined by a close mesh of 
mole-runs, and cultivated fields near by are sure to be infested by 
these animals. 
Bats are not uncommon, and find roosting places in the hollow 
trees, and skunks and woodchucks may dig their dens under old 
stumps or other shelter. 
These groves, in winter especially, are a favorite hiding-place for 
rabbits. After the first snow falls in early winter the hunters are sure 
to find them under nearly every brush-heap, fallen tree, or similar 
hiding-place. 
PERMANENT PASTURES. 
(Plate XXVI., Fig. 2.) 
As we have seen, but little of the original prairie is used per- 
manently for grazing, and the permanent pastures of the county are 
for the most part portions of the country from which the timber has 
been removed. In general, stumps, old half-decayed logs, thickets, 
and scattered trees remain as relics of the original condition of the 
land. The pasturing is usually rather close, but the waste growth of 
weeds and coarse grasses in swampy places and around thickets 
furnishes shelter for birds, reptiles, and small mammals. 
These pastures are the favorite resort of the white-footed wood- 
mouse, and it is as characteristic of them as the prairie white-foot 
is of the corn fields of the prairie. Every large old stump, decayed 
log, brush-heap, or similar shelter is pretty sure to be the home of one. 
Next in real abundance, though even more conspicuous, are the 
striped gopher and the mole. Both of these, however, prefer the 
