WILSON'S MEADOW-MOUSE. 345 



of water, and were nocturnal in their habits. During the day-time they 

 constantly nestled under some loose cotton, where they lay, unless dis- 

 turbed, until dusk, when they ran about their place of confinement with 

 great liveliness and activity, clinging to the wires and running up and 

 down in various directions upon them, as if intent on making their 

 escape. 



GEOGEAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



We have found this species in all the New England States, where it 

 is very common. It is abundant in all the meadows of the State of New 

 York. It is the most common species in the neighbourhood of Philadel- 

 phia. We have found it in Maryland and Delaware. It exists in the 

 valleys of the Virginia Mountains ; and we obtained a number of speci- 

 mens from our friend, Edmund Ruffin, Esq., who procured them on the 

 Pamunkey River, in Hanover county, in that State, where it is quite 

 abundant. We have trace I it as far south as the northern boundary of 

 North Carolina ; and to the north have met with it in Upper and Lower 

 Canada. Fokster obtained it from Hudson's Bay, and Richardson speaks 

 of it as very abundant from Canada to Great Bear Lake, latitude 65°. 



To the west it exists along the banlcs of the Ohio, but we were unable 

 to find it in any part of the region lying between the Mississippi and the 

 Rocky Mountains. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



We are fully aware of the difficulty of finding characters by which 

 the various species of this genus may be distinguished. We cannot 

 speak positively of Wilson's diminutive figure of the Meadow-Mouse, 

 (American Ornithology, vol. vi., plate 50, fig. 3 ; description given, p. 59, 

 in the article on the barn-owl,) but the accurate description of it by Ord, 

 which is creditable to him as a naturalist, cannot possibly apply to any 

 other species than this. It is the most common arvicola near Philadel- 

 phia, and no part of the description will apply to either of the only two 

 other species of this genus existing in that vicinity. 



• We had an opportunity, at the museum of Zurich, to compare speci- 

 mens of this species with the campagnol or meadow-mouse of Europe, 

 Mas agrestis of Linn^us, and Arvicola vulgaris of Desmarest, to which 

 GoDMAN, (Nat. Hist., vol. ii., p. 88,) referred it. There is a strong gene- 

 ral resemblance, but the species are distinct. The European animal 

 has longer and narrower ears, protruding beyond the fur ; its tail is 



45 



