574 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. (VoL. XXXII. 
record. His plea of not guilty stands good so far as the rec- 
ords of economic zodlogy are concerned. This may sound pre- 
posterous to every reader of the statement, but it is undeniable, 
and not more difficult to believe, after we have inquired into 
the facts of the case, than the conclusions of the modern 
zoologist regarding some of our hawks and owls. ‘Of course, 
meadow mice live almost wholly on vegetable food, the grasses 
and grains of the farm, and that settles it.” So retort the 
great majority, and until a very recent period the writer had 
thoughtlessly been one of that number. As a farmer, I have 
had ten years’ acquaintance with the habits of the meadow mouse 
in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and as a zodlogist, have made: 
about six years’ study of the same animal in ten eastern states. 
In that time about a thousand specimens have been secured and 
examined, and four hundred preserved for study. Without going 
into details, the following is a summary of my conclusions as 
to the economic status of this species, the common meadow 
mouse, Microtus pennsylvanicus of Ord: 
1. From go to 100 per cent. of the food of this mouse through- 
out the year is vegetable, of which 60 to 80 per cent. consists 
of endogenous plants, chiefly grasses; 15 to 30 per cent. con- 
sists of exogenous plants, chiefly weeds ; 5 to 10 per cent. con- 
sists of tubers and roots; and 1 to 5 per cent. consists of grain 
and seeds. 
2. From 1 to 5 per cent. of its diet consists of animal matter 
such as other meadow mice, and the remains of dead animals. 
3. Its vegetable food the year round is largely made up of 
“ grasses,” popularly so called, and during the summer season 
several species of native and introduced weeds form a consider- 
able share of its diet. 
4. Its destruction of grasses at all seasons is confined largely, 
and in the majority of cases almost exclusively, to the rushes 
(Juncus), sedgés (Carex), salt grass (Spartina), Indian grass 
(Andropogon), and other coarse forms which have little or no 
‘agricultural value and are rejected by stock either as hay or 
pasturage. 
5. 70 to 80 per cent. of the whole number of meadow mice 
in any given area restrict their habitat to low, moist soils, 
