128 
THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 
corn, of which they destroy a great quantity. This animal 
is about four inches long^ besides the tail^ which is about an 
inch more ; the head is roundish and blunt ; the fur is thick 
and soft, the colour a kind of iron-grey on the back^ the un- 
der parts light grey. They are very numerous. A friend of 
mine told me that once in the month of June^ a mouse of 
this kind, whose nest he had exposed by turning over a large 
stone, was endeavouring to make her escape with three 
young ones which clung cleverly to their mother's back, 
holding with their teeth, and not retarding her progress in 
the least. His admiration of the maternal care of the old 
one was not, however, a sufficient inducement to prevent his 
killing the whole four. There is another species of Field- 
mouse C Mus Leucopus ? J, much smaller, of a lighter brown, 
and with a tail considerably longer than the body. I have 
never seen more than one specimen of it, and that I did not 
preserve. 
