MISCHIEF OF MEADOW-MOUSE 55 
From their intricate tunnels under the leaf- 
mold frequent burrows descend into the soil, 
some of which are utilized as nesting places. 
Nests are built also at the surface of the 
ground, under fallen logs, brush-heaps, flat 
stones, fences, or other shelter. The number 
of young at a birth evidently averages less than 
is usual in the genus Microtus, as is shown by 
the small number of mamme; but this is coun- 
terbalanced by the safer underground exist- 
ence; so that within their range pine-mice are 
about as abundant as other field-mice. | 
Quick and Butler, writing of the food-habits 
of the pine mouse in Indiana, state that it lives 
upon the tender roots of young hickories, the 
young sprouts of white clover, the fruit of the 
red haw, and the tuberous roots of the wild 
violet. These writers found all but the fruit 
buried, some in deposits of a gallon in a burrow, 
and the caches sometimes extending 18 inches 
below the surface of the ground. Violet roots 
predominated in these stores. Kennicott also 
states that pine mice store acorns and nuts in 
burrows for winter use. 
Living in concealment neither their presence 
