PRELIMINARY LIST OF THE MAMMALS OF NEW YORK 325 
Helme I visited Great Gull Island for the purpose of learning the con- 
dition of the colony of meadow mice that formerly existed there. 
Careful search on every part of the island for signs or runways of the 
mice failed to reveal any indication whatever of their presence. The 
natural conclusion is that the race has been nearly if not quite exter- 
minated. The cause is not difficult to see. Within the past year the 
island, which contains only about 15 acres, has been occupied by the 
United States government as a coast defence station, and the construc- 
tion of forts at each end of the island has necessitated disturbances of 
the soil and change in the topography of practically the whole surface. 
The forts themselves with the shanties erected for the use of the laborers 
cover a considerable portion of the island, hills have been levelled, the 
little fresh water swamp has been filled in, and the whole surface twice 
burned over. The destruction of all the rubbish and dead vegetation 
deprived the mice of any cover where they could seek shelter, and the 
sparseness of the new growth made it easy for us to examine every 
available hiding place. Doubtless any of the mice which may have 
escaped the fires were captured by the cats which roam at will over the 
island. 
“On the same day we visited Plum island, situated between Great Gull 
Island and the eastern end of Long Island. Here we found Microtus 
quite abundant about the edges of the swamps on the western end of the 
island, and a series of 14 was secured. Comparison of these specimens 
with the mainland form shows that the Plum island mouse is like the 
latter and entirely different from AZicrotus nesophilus.” 
Principal records. he first published record of this mouse is contained 
in a paper by Dr Basil Hicks Dutcher on the birds of Little Gull Island 
(89). Dr Dutcher says, ‘“‘ Great Gull Island was purchased by the 
Government to serve as a garden for the keepers of the Little Gull Light, 
but it was so overrun with mice that it was useless for the purpose. 
I secured one specimen of the resident mouse, which proved to be 
a juvenile Arvicola riparius.” This specimen afterward became Mr 
Bailey’s type of Microtus insularis, Mr J. Harris Reed has recently 
described in considerable detail the fortifications on Great Gull Island 
and their effect on the fauna of the place (’98, p. 41-43). 
Mr Frank M. Chapman informs me that he visited Great Gull 
Island during the summer of 1889. He found the mouse colony in 
the same flourishing condition described by Dr Dutcher. Seven speci- 
mens which he collected are now in the Ametican museum of natural 
history. 
