228 GNAWING ANIMALS 



In severe winters, when the ground remains frozen for 

 a long period, Field Mice are sonietinies forced to feed on 

 bark, and frequently kill young fruit-trees by barking them 

 near the surface of the snow. When shocks of corn are 

 available these mice live high, literally, feeding well, and 

 being well housed at the same time. In husking shock corn 

 in winter, many a nestful of Field Mice have we helped to 

 turn out into the cold world; but the amount of grain they 

 consumed was so insignificant we never grudged them their 

 food. 



Taken as a whole, the Field Mice of various species in- 

 habit nearly the whole of North America north of Mexico 

 and the Gulf, even to the remote islands of Bering Sea. I 

 do not know of a state or province from which they have 

 not been recorded. 



The Red-Backed Mouse^ is, in form, very much like 

 the meadow mouse, but in size it is smaller, and in habit it 

 is quite different. It prefers to live in cool, damp woods 

 and timbered regions, varying all the way from dark swamps 

 and valleys to timbered mountain tops; but it is seldom 

 found in open country. 



They are found from Ontario, New England, and New 

 Jersey westward to California, and northward through Can- 

 ada and Alaska, sixteen species and five subspecies. They 

 are all very much alike, rather slender, and more graceful 

 in form than the field mice, and the majority are reddish 



^ Until recently this species has been considered identical with Evotomys rutilui 

 of the Old World, and has been so called. Now, however, our species is considered 

 quite distinct, and is called E. gapperi. 



