WILSON'S MEADOW-MOUSE. 343 



off in all directions, and although the}' do not run fast, they have so 

 many hiding places, that unless you are prompt in your attack, they are 

 likely to escape you. Their galleries do not run under-ground like those 

 of the shrew-mole, or the mischievous pine-mouse (of Leconte,) but 

 extend along the surface sometimes for fifty yards. 



The food of this species consists principally of roots and grasses. 

 During summer it obtains an abundant supply of herds-grass, {Phleum 

 pratense,) red-top, (Agrostis vulgaris,) and other plants found in the 

 meadows ; and when the fields are covered with snow it still piu-sues its 

 summer paths, and is able to feed on the roots of these grasses, of which 

 there is always a supply so abundant that it is generally in good con- 

 dition. It is also fond of bulbs, and feeds on the meadow-garlic, {Allium 

 Canadense.) and red lily, (Lilium Philadelphicum.) 



We doubt whether this active little arvicola ever does much injury 

 to the meadows, and in the wheat-fields it is not often a depredator, as 

 it is seldom seen on high ground. Slill, we have to relate some of its 

 habits that are not calculated to win the aff"ections of the farmer. In 

 very severe winters, when the ground is frozen, and there is no covering 

 of snow to protect the roots of its favourite grasses, it resorts for a sub- 

 sistance to the stems of various shrubs and fruit trees, from which it 

 peals off" the bark, and thus destroys them. We possessed a small but 

 choice nursery of fruit trees, which we had grafted ourselves, that was 

 completely destroyed duing a severe vnnter by this Meadow-Mouse, the 

 bark having been gnawed from the wood for several inches from the 

 ground upwards. Very recently our friend, the late Dr. Wright, of 

 Troy, sent us the following observations on this species : — 



" Two or three winters ago several thousand young fruit trees were 

 destroyed in two adjoining nurseries near our city ; the bark was 

 gnawed from them by some small animal, for the space of several 

 inches, the lowest part of the denuded surface being about ten inches 

 from the ground. I examined the premises the following spring. The 

 ground had been frozen very hard all winter, owing to the small 

 quantity of snow that had fallen. I supposed that some little animal that 

 subsists on the roots of grasses, had been cut off from its ordinary food 

 by the stony hardness of the ground, and had attacked the trees from 

 the top of the snow. I looked around for the destroyer, and found a 

 number of the present species and no other. I strongly suspect that this 

 animal caused the mischief, as it is very abundant and annoys the 

 farmer not a little. 



" A few years ago a farmer gave me permission to upset some stacks 

 of corn on a piece of low land, I found an abundance of this species in 



