MAMMALS. 63 



over tlie surface of the ground, and these become hardened and 

 throughout the winter are avenues of travel and food supply as long 

 as the snow lasts. Many winter nests are built on the surface of the 

 ground and occupied until the snow (lisapi)ears, when the occupants 

 are again foi'ced to tlieii' underground dwellings for j^rotection. Tlio 

 i'lU'ry coats of these mice become dense and a beautiful light gra^y 

 ihiring the winter, but the animals do not become fat or show any 

 signs of hibernation. In summer the heavy winter coats are changed 

 for a much thinner and harsher coat of a darker gray color that 

 blends well with the shadows of the half-concealed runways. 



Dkujimoxd Meadow Mouse: Microtus dnimmond't (Audubon and 

 Ijachman). — These little dark brownish-gra}' meadow mice with mod- 

 erately short tapering tails are common in the ope-n country about 

 .St. Mary Lake, along Swiftcurrent Creek, between Sherburne and 

 jNIcDermott Lakes, at Summit, and on the Big Prairie in the North 

 Fork of the Flathead A'allej', where specimens have been taken, 

 but they undouljtedly have a much more general range- o\'er the 

 park in suitable localities. The}' live in meadows and other grassy 

 places generally, but are sometimes found in wet marshes- and 

 along the margins of streams and lakes. They are not usually found 

 in the timber, except as they follow meadows or open strips of coun- 

 try. In general habits they are more like the eastern meadow mouse, 

 to which they are related, and their runwaj's and burrows may gen- 

 erally be found under the tall grass and dense vegetation of the more, 

 fertile areas. Any naturalist should be able to go to a favorable loolc- 

 ing meadow or grassy slope and by parting the fallen grass, find the 

 little roadways and burrows of these mice, but these are rarely seen 

 by the person without the naturalist's training, unless by the farmer 

 in gathering his hay or grain. Out on the prairies, the mice (|uickly 

 gather under the haycocks or the shocks of grain, and when these 

 are removed to the stack they are seen scampering in all directions. 

 While with other rodents they help to lay a heavy ti'ibnte on th ■ 

 agricultural products of much of the countrj', here in the park the}' 

 are practically harmless and are too obscure and unnoticed to form 

 even an interesting feature of the animal life. 



Rocky Mountain Muskkat: Fiber zibethieus osoyoo><ensis Lord. — 

 A few muskrats are found in most of the lakes and along the cjuieter 

 streams of Glacier Park, but nowdiere have I found them so numerous 

 as they are out on the Plains and in the low country. A few- tracks 

 were seen around the edges of McDermott and Josephine Lakes and 

 along the river above Upper Waterton Lake, and in 1895 I trapped a 

 specimen in a beaver pond near Summit Station. Don Stevenson re- 

 ports a. family of 11 cream-colored albinos, which he once trapped in 

 Swiftcurrent Lake. Their signs were seen along the Swiftcurrent 



