llESrEROMVS I.EUCOPUS. 263 



move; fell down, and expired, without evincing any symptoms of 

 pain." ''^' 



Linnaeus, in his brief diagnosis of this species, said : *' Delcctatur 

 music a.' '\ 



HESPEROMYS LEUCOPUS (i<^f-) LcConte. 

 White-footed Mouse ; Deer Mouse; Field Mouse. 



The White-footed Mouse is common in all [)arts of the Adiron- 

 dacks. In the wild state it feeds upon beechnuts and a variety of 

 seeds ; in captivity it is omnivorous. 



Its haunts are various. Some take up their abode in dense ever- 

 green forests, others in hardwood groves, and others still in the open 

 fields. Many fmd the way into the hunter's camp and the log-house 

 of the frontiersman ; while in the more cultivated districts they vie 

 with the common house mouse in the possession of our homes. Dr. 

 Richardson tells us that in the Hudson's Ray Company's Terri- 

 tory, " no sooner is a fur-post established than this litde animal be- 

 comes an inmate of the dwelling-houses" (Fauna Boreali Ameri- 

 cana, 1829. p. 142). 



It is an excellent climber and I have often found its nest in holes 

 in living trees, more than seventy feet (21.33 nietres) above the 

 ground. While on a snow-shoe walk with a friend one bright moon- 

 li<dit eveninof, several winters a^^o, one of them was observed skip- 

 ping lightly over the snow a short distance ahead. We gave chase, 

 but the mouse escaped by running up the trunk of a smooth-barked 

 beech hard by. My friend, who was not aware of its climbing pro- 

 pensities, looked on in amazement while the mouse, with as much 

 ease and nimbleness as a scjuirrel. ascended the tree and disap- 

 peared in a knot-hole high among the branches. 



The White-footed Mouse does not hibernate. Except during the 



* The Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, Vol. I, 1804, pp. 37-38. 

 f Systema Natural, Ed. X, Vol. I, 1758, p. 62. 



