FEsB., 1912. MAMMALS OF ILLINOIS AND WisconsIN— Cory. 219 
Type locality — Uncertain, probably Mississippi Valley.* 
Distribution — From southern Wisconsin southward nearly throughout 
Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, eastern Nebraska and Kansas, 
to northeastern Oklahoma. 
Special characters — This species may be distinguished from M. penn- 
sylvanicus by its “grizzly” upper parts and different color of belly; 
also characters previously given for the subgenus. 
Description — Upper parts having a grizzly appearance of mixed light 
and dark brown; sides of body paler; under parts buffy gray or pale 
brownish gray; feet brown; upper surface of tail dark, under surface 
pale; more or less dusky or blackish about the nose; plantar tuber- 
cules 5. 
Measurements — Total length, about 6 in. (152 mm.); tail vertebrz, 
about 1.30 in. (35 mm.); hind foot, .80 in. (20 mm.). 
Habitat — High prairie land and dry fields; common in hazel thickets, 
The Prairie Meadow Mouse is common throughout Illinois and more 
or less so in southern Wisconsin. I have seen no specimens from Wis- 
consin, but there are several in the Field Museum collection from ex- 
treme northern counties in Illinois (Jo Daviess and Lake). Jackson 
considers it locally common in Wisconsin in the extreme southern and 
western counties. Snyder records it from Beaver Dam, Dodge Co., 
and Bailey from Racine. Strong gives it as “‘quite abundant in the 
prairie regions of southern and central (sic) Wisconsin’’ (J. ¢., p. 439). 
Unlike the common Meadow Mouse this species prefers the dry 
fields and overgrown pastures and it is commonly found in culti- 
vated clover and alfalfa fields. While their food consists principally 
of roots of grasses and weeds, they eat considerable grain and in late 
fall and winter they often do serious damage to fruit trees by attacking 
the roots. In the fall I have often found them under old corn shocks 
in corn fields. The nest resembles that of M. pennsylvanicus, but is 
somewhat smaller. Several litters are born in a year and the young 
usually number 4 or 5, rarely 6. 
Robert Kennicott gives an interesting account of the habits of this 
species in Illinois. He says: ‘Their winter burrows on the uncultivated 
prairie are often in old ant-hills, or, if not, the earth thrown out of them 
forms little hillocks. They are not very deep, seldom over six inches 
or a foot, but are remarkable for the numerous and complicated cham- 
bers and side-passages of which they are composed. In one of these 
chambers, considerably enlarged, is placed the nest, formed of fine, 
dry grass. It is globular, from four to six inches in diameter, and with 
but a small cavity in the centre, which is entered by a very narrow 
* See Osgood, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XX, 1907, p. 48. 
