stump, and rail-pile to log. If you inves- 

 tigate, you may discover the tiny woods- 

 man; in short, the white-footed mouse, 

 or deer-mouse, commonly called the 

 wood-mouse, curled snugly in his nest in 

 the stump, hollow log, or in any dry, 

 warm place, not too high from the 

 ground. 



This most beautiful little creature is 

 very little known, which is rather sur- 

 prising, as it is quite common in the 

 country, and not unusually shy in its 

 habits. Many books on natural history 

 do not include it in their lists, and the 

 few people who know it often consider 

 it scarcely different from the common 

 grey mouse. 



The wood-mouse is about six inches in 

 length, half of which includes the tail. 

 In color it varies from brownish or yel- 

 lowish grey to bright reddish brown on 

 the back, while its breast, throat and feet 

 are purest white. Its fur is remarkably 

 silky and evenly distributed; even its 

 tail has a scanty covering of fine light 

 hairs, amounting to almost a tuft on the 

 end. . Its ears, which have a resemblance 

 to paper, are exceedingly large and thin, 

 and its black, lustrous bead-like eyes are 

 so prominent as to protrude to a highly 

 noticeable degree. 



The nest of this tiny woodsprite is sit- 

 uated in almost any place, and made of 

 almost any soft material. The site may 

 be a hollow log, a woodpile or a deserted 

 squirrel's nest, and an empty bird's nest 

 makes an ideal summer house for his 

 mouseship. I once discovered a vireo's 

 nest, nicely roofed over and filled with 

 grass, tenanted by a white-foot. This 

 nest was about five feet from the ground 

 on the summit of a densely wooded hill. 

 Among the most beautiful of the ground 

 nests which I have found was one under 

 a rail pile, made of milkweed down. 



The food of the deer-mouse varies as 

 much as does its nest. Corn, wheat, oats 

 and nuts form the bulk of its diet, but its 

 favorite summer food is cherry stones, 

 or, rather, the kernel of the same. It 

 collects great numbers of these under a 

 harbor near cherry trees, or stores them 

 in nooks and comers of the larger limbs. 

 To exaract the kernel, it drills with its 

 sharp teeth a small circular hole in the 

 side of the cherry pit, leaving the interior 

 empty. 



Wishing to study closely the habits of 

 wood-mice, I captured a pair and con- 

 fined them in a small box cage, about 

 fourteen inches square. A nest box was 

 fastened in an upF>cr corner of the cage, 

 and ladders led from it to the floor. The 

 mice fully repaid my efforts, for more 

 interesting pets could not b®. found. They 

 were exceedingly agile in mounting the 

 ladders, and when dried cornsilk and 

 grass were placed in the cage, they 

 quickly conveyed it to their second-story 

 retreat and established a comfortable 

 home. 



For the first few days I fed them ex- 

 clusively on grain, but in reading Henry 

 David Thoreau's "Distribution of Forest 

 Trees," I encountered the following sen- 

 tence: "Frequently, while chestnutting 

 in midwinter, I find thirty or forty chest- 

 nuts in a pile, left in its galler}^ under 

 the leaves, by the common wood-mouse." 

 From that time forth my pets had no 

 lack of nuts. I found them much more 

 fond of shellbarks than of chestnuts, 

 however. The hard shells gave them 

 little difficulty, for they cut through to 

 the kernel just as the squirrel would have 

 done in a clumsier fashion. 



My wood-mice were very quiet ; that is, 

 they seldom exercised their vocal powers. 

 Their only sound was a short, wiry note, 

 more a squeak and less a squeal than the 

 voice of the common house-mouse. Be- 

 sides their squeak, they beat a rattling 

 tattoo on the floor of the cage with one 

 of their forefeet. During this perform- 

 ance their feet would move so quickly as 

 to appear but an indistinct blur ; the foot 

 was raised not more than a sixteenth of 

 an inch from the floor, and the sound 

 was continued about six seconds. The 

 real cause for this strange action I never 

 knew ; probably it was a sort of signal 

 by w^hich they could express anger or 

 fear, as they would "drum" in a very 

 lively manner when I disturbed them. 



My little pets were captured about the 

 middle of September. The female, when 

 1 found her, had young, scarcely able to 

 run. The little mice grew very rapidly, 

 and were the most playful little creatures 

 I ever saw, chasing each other all about 

 the cage as soon as they were large 

 enough. 



They had a strange way of changing 

 their color. Their first coat differed 



67 



