1914.] 



IlTTKODUCTIOlSr. 



11 



ground or in vines, bushes, or low trees some distance above the 

 ground. Deserted birds' nests are sometimes used as a base for the 

 nest of the mouse. Mr. H. P. Attwater has found their nests in old 

 woodpecker holes in fence posts, and ^Ir. Howard Lacey, at Kerr- 

 ville, Tex., has found them on cornstalks and made of com silk. The 

 breeding season extends in northern latitudes from April to October 

 and in tropical regions may cover the entire year. The number of 

 young produced at a birth varies from three to seven. 



All the species live chiefly above ground, but burrows are also 

 used, and cracks and opemngs in the ground are often occupied by 

 the nests. The mice sometimes travel in narrow beaten paths of their 

 own, and also are caught in the runways of other mammals, particu- 

 larly those of cotton rats (Sigmodon) and meadow mice (Microtus). 

 They are both nocturnal and diurnal in habit and remain active 

 during the entire year. 



FOOD. 



The food of harvest mice consists largely of seeds and grain, with 

 considerable green vegetation and occasionally fruit. Our knowl- 

 edge of their preferred habitat indicates that most of their food 

 must be obtained from wild plants of little or no value to man. 



Bachman, who had studied the habits of the eastern harvest mouse 

 rather closely, writes of it as follows : 



We doubt whether this species is of much injury to the farmer. It consumes but 

 little grain, is more fond of residing near grass fields, on the seeds of which it subsists, 

 than among the wheat fields. We have observed in its nest small stores of grass 

 seeds — the outer husks and other remains of the broom grass {Androjpogon dissiti- 

 florum) — also that of the crab grass {Digitaria sanguinalis) , and small heaps of the 

 seeds of several species of paspalum, poa, and panicum, especially those of panicum 

 Italicum} 



Mr. H. P. Attwater, writing of Reithrodontomys intermedins, as 

 observed in Bexar County, Tex., says: 



These mice seem to be fond of peaches, eating the peach and leaving the stone 

 hanging on the tree.^ 



^Ir. E. A. Goldman, at Metlalto5nica, Mexico, captured a specimen 

 of R. mexicanus goldmani on a bunch of bananas hanging about 8 

 feet above the ground. 



Only rarely is any damage to crops reported. Mr. C. W. Seeg- 

 miQer, of St. George, Utah, states that he has known harvest 

 mice to do some damage by chmbing grain stalks and cutting off 

 the heads. He has found their nests built several feet from the 

 ground in close-growing clusters of grain stalks. Prof. D. E. Lantz 

 reports that in eastern Kansas Reithrodontomys dycJiei is often found 

 in the fall under shocks of wheat and corn, and in such situations it 

 may be expected to glean some of the graia. 



1 Aud. & Bach., Quad. N. Am., 11, 1851, p. 105. 



2 AUen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VUI, 1896, p. 236. 



