330 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Principal records. De Kay : " This curious little animal although 

 rarely seen, is not uncommon in every part of the state" ('42, p. 71). 

 Merriam : "The jumping-mouse is common in many parts of the Adiron- 

 dacks as well as in the surrounding country" ('84d| p. 192). Fisher: 

 " Tolerably common. Usually found in the tall grass of wet meadows 

 near streams, but occasionally observed in dry pastures " ( '96, p. 198). 

 Mearns: "Abundant along Schoharie creek, but not found elsewhere in 

 the [Catskill] region" ('98, p. 347). 



I have found the meadow jumping-mouse abundant at Peterboro, 

 Madison co. where it never penetrates the dense woods inhabited by 

 Napaeozapus insignis. The two species frequently occur together how- 

 ever in thinly wooded places. About this animal in Erie co. Mr Savage 

 writes as follows : " With all my rambling about I never met with Zapus, 

 but have heard of it from persons qualified to distinguish it from the 

 white-footed mouse." Mr E. M. Chamot in a letter from Ithaca March 

 15, 1896 writes me that he once took a specimen of Zapus in deep woods 

 at Angola, Erie co. May it not have been Z. insignis ? Mr Helme 

 reports the meadow jumping-mouse fairly common on Long Island. 



Remarks. De Kay figures this species ('42, pi. 24) and his account 

 evidently refers wholly to it. Merriam on the other hand includes both 

 meadow and woodland animals under the name husdonius. 



I once saw a remarkable demonstration, though a negative one, of the 

 function of the exceedingly long tail of this animal. A young individual 

 had lost its tail by the knife of a mowing machine in a damp meadow 

 and was rendered thereby helpless. Not that its jumping power was in 

 any way impaired, on the contrary I have seldom seen a mouse of the 

 size leap more energetically or to greater distances. But the animal had 

 lost all control over its movements. When I approached, it made violent 

 efforts to escape, but the moment it was launched in air, its body, 

 deprived of its balancing power, turned end over end so that it was as 

 likely as not to strike the ground facing the direction from which it had 

 come. The next frantic leap would then carry it back to the starting 

 point. An animal thus deprived of its tail would be an interesting 

 subject for observation. I am inclined to believe that the lost coordina- 

 tion of movements would eventually be restored. 



Napaeozapus a insignis Miller Woodland jumping-mouse 

 1884 Zapus hudsonius Merriam, Linn. soc. New York. Trans. 2:192 (part) 

 1891 Zapns insignis Miller, American naturalist. Aug. 1891. 25 : 743. 



a Characterized (as a subgenus) by Preble, North American fauna No. 15, p. 33. August 8, 1899. 



