THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
peculiarly North American. They are the graceful, large-eared 
“deer” mice of our woodlands often seen about country houses, 
ities and are richly fawn-color above, with pure white 
foot under parts and feet. The common whitefoot is ac- 
pers tive, agile, hardy, and has as miscellaneous a bill of 
fare as a red squirrel, eating all sorts of seeds, thin-shelled nuts, 
berries, small fruits, insects, and scraps of flesh and bone. These 
mice are largely responsible for the disappearance of cast horns 
of deer, and of 
animal _ skele- 
tons left in the 
woods. ‘Like 
squirrels,” re- 
marks Cram,” 
of New Eng- 
land examples, 
“they often 
find a way into 
granaries and 
farmhouses in 
search of food, particularly in the winter, when times are 
hard; for though they lay up generous stores of nuts and 
seeds, and hibernate to a certain extent, large numbers of 
them are up and doing at all times in spite of the weather.” 
Elliot’s “Synopsis” recorded in 1901 no less than forty-two 
alleged species in North America; and several other populous 
genera are closely allied. Related mice well known in the 
South are the cotton rat and rice-field mouse, while the 
American harvest mice are widespread in the West. In the 
Old World occur the large and interesting hamsters (Cricetus) 
whose skins make pretty robes, ctc.; and in South America 
the extraordinary, aquatic, fish-eating rats of the genus Icthyo- 
mys, recalling the Australian beaver rats. 
Africa possesses many exclusive groups and genera, of which 
440 
EASTERN WHITE-FOOTED Woob MOUSE. 
