272 MAMMALIA. 



during the night in traps baited with beechnuts and meat. Its 

 ordinary gait is a moderately fast trot ; I have never seen it pro- 

 ceed in leaps. Still, it runs swiftly for a short distance and its 

 quick movements render it difficult of capture. 



The nest of the Red-backed Mouse is usualh, in this region, placed 

 in a burrow in the earth, though it is sometinies found in a half- 

 decayed log, or under the roots of a stump. I ha\-e shot females, 

 each containing four young, as early as the ^-^d of April, and as late 

 as the 4th of October. I have also taken a female early in June that 

 was nursing her second brood. Hence it is clear that several litters 

 are produced in a season. 



The flesh of the Red-backed Mouse is tender and well flavored. 



ARVICOLA RIPARIUS o.ci. 

 Meadotv Mouse ; Field Mouse. 



The Meadow Mouse is common in the cleared lands within and 

 around the Adirondack region. It occurs on many of the beaver 

 meadows, but is never abundant in the coniferous forests. 



It feeds, in the main, upon the roots of grasses, though in winter it 

 sometimes commits great havoc by gnawing the bark of trees. Rich 

 meadows and pasture lands constitute its favorite haunts, and are apt 

 to be cut up, in all directions, by its deeply-worn runways. It is 

 strictly terrestrial, rarely niounting even the log or limb that may lie 

 in its path, and is both nocturnal and diurnal. 



It does not hibernate. In the boLiinnino^ of winter, when the 

 .ground is frozen for some distance below the surface, it abandons its 

 burrow^s and lives entirely above ground. Its nests of dry grass then 

 lie flat upon the surface, without attenij^t at concealment, and are 

 soon buried in the snow. As winter advances and the snow becomes 

 deeper, the Meadow Mice regularly betake themselves to their nests 

 for rest. The heat from their bodies soon melts the snow in contact 

 with and immediately adjoining the nests, which, from the continued 



