HABITS OF PTNE MICE. 21 



less, owing to their underground existence; so that within their 

 range pine mice are about as abundant as other field mice. 



Quick and Butler, writing of. the food habits of the pine mouse 

 in Indiana, state that it lives upon the tender roots of young hickories, 

 the young sprouts of white clover, the fruit of the red haw, and the 

 tuberous roots of the wild violet (Viola cucullata). The writers 

 found all but the fruit buried, some in deposits of a gallon in a bur- 

 row, and the caches sometimes extending 18 inches below the surface 

 of the ground. Violet roots predominated in these stores. Kenni- 

 cott also states that pine mice store acorns and nuts in burrows for 

 winter use. Blasius and Brehm both state that the European species 

 (M. subterraneus) prepares such stores. While personally I have 

 never found such deposits, it is probable that our species have this 

 habit to an extent greater than is generally known. 



From their homes in woods and thickets pine mice invade fields, 

 orchards, nurseries, dooryards, and gardens, passing always through 

 underground runways. Living in concealment, neither their presence 

 nor the injury they inflict is suspected until the latter is past remedy. 

 Bulbs, planted hopefully in autumn, appear not at all in spring, or 

 only in the shape of sickly plants whose life substance has been 

 gnawed away. Nursery and orchard trees here and there put forth 

 no leaves, and an examination of the roots discloses the nature of the 

 damage. 



Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, and other vegetables are 

 eaten by pine mice, both while growing and when stored in pits or 

 lying in piles in the field or garden. Potatoes partly matured or left 

 long in the ground after maturity are eaten, and the injur}^ is attrib- 

 uted to moles, because tunnels supposed to be the work of moles lead 

 to the place of damage. I have investigated numerous cases of such 

 injury and have invariably found either that the tunnels were made 

 by pine mice, or, if mole tunnels, that they were frequented by mice. 

 Traps set in the tunnels at the potato hills captured pine mice, and 

 the starchy material found in the stomachs of those caught proved 

 that they, and not moles, had been eating the potatoes. 



Pine mice occur in central and southern Europe, in the eastern 

 United States, and in a limited part of eastern Mexico. Those in the 

 United States occur chiefly in the Upper Austral zone. The typical 

 species (M. pinetorum), with bright russet-brown color and glossy 

 mole-like fur, is found only in parts of Georgia, South Carolina, and 

 southern North Carolina. In the last-named State it grades into the 

 subspecies scalopsoides, which is much more widely distributed, rang- 

 ing northward to southern New York (Hudson Valley and Long 

 Island) and westward to Illinois. West of the Allegheny Mountains 

 it occurs mainly north of the Ohio River, except in West Virginia. 



« American Naturalist, vol. 19, p. 116, 1885. 



