142 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 
[45.] 4. Mus .eucopus. (Rafinesque.) American Field-Mouse. 
Mus sylvaticus. Forster, Phil. Trans., vol. lxii. p. 380. 
Field Rat, A, American. PrENnNantT, Hist. Quad., vol. ii. p. 185. Arct. Zool., vol. i. p. 131. 
Mus leucopus. ‘‘ RaFINESQUE-SMALTz, Am. Month. Mag., vol. iii. p. 444; 1818” (quoted from Desmarest, Mamm.) 
Haran, Fauna, p. 151. Ricuarpson, Zool. Journ., No. 12. p. 518. 
Mus agrarius. Gopman, Nat. Hist., vol. ii. p. 88? 
Appecooseesh, CREE LANGUAGE. 
M. (leucopus), cauda longd vestita, corpore griseo-lutescente subter abrupté albo, auriculis magnis. 
American Field Mouse, with a long hairy tail, hair-brown back, white belly and feet, and large ears. 
No sooner is a fur-post established than this little animal becomes an inmate of 
the dwelling-houses ; whilst the meadow-mouse, described in p. 124, under the name 
of Arvicola Pennsylvanicus, at the same time takes possession of the outhouses and 
gardens. We observed it as far north as Great Bear Lake ; and if the synonyms 
prefixed to this article are correctly applied, it is not uncommon in the United 
States. It also extends from Hudson’s Bay across the continent to the mouth of 
the Columbia River. The gait and prying actions of this little creature, when 
it ventures from its hole in the dusk of the evening, are so much like those of the 
English domestic mouse, that most of the European residents at Hudson’s Bay 
have considered it to be the same animal, altogether overlooking the obvious 
differences of their tails and other peculiarities. The American Field-Mouse, 
however, has a habit of making hoards of grain or little pieces of fat, which, I 
believe, is unknown of the European domestic mouse ; and what is most singular, 
these hoards are not formed in the animal’s retreats, but generally in a shoe left 
at the bedside, the pocket of a coat, a nightcap, a bag hung against the wall, or 
some similar place. It not unfrequently happened that we found barley, which had 
been brought from a distant apartment, and introduced into a drawer, through so 
small a chink, that it was impossible for the mouse to gain access to its store, 
The quantity laid up in a single night nearly equalling the bulk of a mouse, renders 
it probable that several individuals unite their efforts to form it. This mouse 
does considerable mischief in the gardens, and in a very few nights will. almost 
destroy a plantation of maize, by tracing the rows for the purpose of collecting the 
seeds, and depositing them in small heaps under the loose mould, generally by the 
side of a stone, or piece of wood. From the facility with which it seems to 
