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). 



