THIO TTHnSON RAY JUMI'INO MOUSE. 



529 



llahits. — As the al)()V(3 nu'ords sliow, llio jumpin<^ mouse is to 

 be found in every section of the State, y(\i it is nowhere abund- 

 ant. The writer spent the first twenty years of his life on a farm 

 in southeastern Indiana, where he was familiar with most of the 

 animals, yet he never saw a jumping mouse. Later, in collecting 

 more than 300 small mammals in the State, but one jumping mouse 

 has been obtained through his personal efforts. This is in accord 

 with the experience of most other naturalists, although a number 

 of specimens may sometimes be obtained in one season where they 

 had not previously been seen. They are said to be most easily 

 captured in some localities by following the mower as the grass 

 of a low meadow is being cut. 



Prof. W. B. Van Gorder writes of its occurrence in Noble 

 County: ''In Albion Township in 1895 I took the first jumping 



Fig. 13. — Skull of Zapus hudsoniiis : a, dorsal view ; b, ventral view. After Preble. 

 N. Am. Fauna No. 15, Bureau of the Biol. Sur., U. S. Dept. of Agri. 



mouse I ever saw. In 1907 I saw another, and in 1908, w^hile 

 watching for birds in a willow swamp four of them (jumping mice) 

 came to my notice only a few feet away. They were playing and 

 running about and were very sportive and interesting, when all at 

 once they bounded away like so many little kangaroos." 



When frightened these mice make great leaps, apparently going 

 aimlessly and depending on their extraordinary appearance and 

 movements to startle and discomfit their enemies. They can leap 

 six or eight feet and, according to some writers, much farther. 

 Because of this method of locomotion they do not make runways 

 under the grass like most small terrestrial mammals. 



The nest is made of grass and is globular in shape, being 

 usually placed in damp meadows above ground, but sometimes it 

 is underground. The young are usually five or six in number and 

 are born in May or June. 



a 



b 



[34] 



