COMMON MAMMALS OF WESTERN MONTANA. 



29 



treatment with this poison the author killed all the woodchucks living 

 under a shanty in a field where timothy and other green food were 

 abundant. 



TRAPPING WOODCHUCKS. 



Although young woodchucks usually do not hesitate to step into 

 exposed steel traps, older animals are more cautious. For this reason 

 it is best to conceal the traps, covering them with paper and dust or 

 with dry grass. If the traps are carefully set at the mouths of bur- 

 rows, no bait is needed. Since woodchucks often spring traps with 

 their breasts or hellies, and since their legs are short and slippery, 

 it is better to use a rather large-sized trap. The number H " jump " 

 traps have been found excellent for this purpose. 



PIG. 20. — Mouse refuge in holes left by burned stump and roots. 



WHITE-FOOTED MICE. 



DISTRIBUTION AND HABITS. 



The white-footed mouse is probably the most generally distributed 

 rodent in western Montana. It lives in every sort of country — under 

 fallen logs, on sage-covered benches, on pine-covered slopes, in houses 

 and stables, in dense forests, in grainfields, in damp meadows, and 

 in dry fields. (Fig. 20.) The mice do not hibernate and are active 

 even during the coldest nights in midwinter. They raise several 

 litters of young each year, the average number in each being four 

 or five. 



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