320 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
In the southern counties the conditions I have named are best afforded 
by the ‘cedar swamps’ that once were such a characteristic feature of 
that part of the state. These are tracts of low ground varying in area 
from a few acres to sometimes several square miles densely wooded with 
white cedar (Chamaecyparis sphaeroidea Spach). The cedars stand 
crowded close together each one rising from a hummock formed of its own 
roots and the mass of sphagnum growing on them. Between the 
hummocks even in summer the water lies in shallow pools, save where it is 
covered by a luxuriant growth of the spongy sphagnum. Sometimes here 
and there in spots where the cedars have opened their ranks and left. 
room enough for other trees to grow, there are a few red maples or white 
pines, and an occasional yellow birch or stunted black spruce. 
‘“‘ Farther north in Middlesex and Essex counties where these cedar 
swamps are comparatively few and seldom large, Evotomys often finds 
its home in swampy woods of old red maples, where the thick foliage 
of the spreading branches casts a dense shade, sometimes made even 
darker by an undergrowth of tall shrubs, among which the high-bush 
blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) is the chief. Here too sphagnum 
flourishes, and covers the roots and hummocks that rise a little above 
the lower levels of the wet ground” (’96a, p. 192-93). What Mr 
Batchelder says about the habitat of the red-backed mouse in 
Massachusetts applies equally well to the animal’s haunts in New York 
south of the Adirondacks. Here however dense thickets of arbor vitae 
(Thuja occidentalis) generally replace the ‘cedar’ swamps. 
Distribution in New York. In New York the common red-backed 
mouse occurs abundantly throughout the Canadian forests. The details 
of its distribution south of this region are very imperfectly known, but 
the animal is to be looked for in suitable localities throughout the state. 
Principal records. De Kay: “ We have little to add except that it was 
first obtained from low grounds in the neighborhood of Oneida lake. 
I subsequently found it in great numbers in the forests of Hamilton 
and St Lawrence counties” (’42, p. 86). 
Merriam: ‘The red-backed mouse is abundant in all parts of the 
Adirondacks. It occurs on the summits of the tree-covered mountains 
as well as in the deepest valleys. It is essentially a wood species in its 
local distribution, rarely frequenting the beaver meadows or the fields 
of the farmer. It often enters the woodman’s camp, and I have some- 
times caught it even in the luxurious log-houses which have, during the 
past few years, supplanted the old-time shanties in many parts of the 
Adirondacks” (84d, p. 173). 
