68 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol.X, No. 4, 
can get out of the way easily in case of danger. If such a 
condition occurs in a waste field the mice live on roots largely 
and no noticeable damage results. In the burrows here and 
there quantities of dried grass is carried together and nests 
constructed where the adults spend much of their time and 
where the young are born. A brood of young usually consists 
of from four to six but they only remain under the direct care 
of the mother for a short time before they are able to go out and 
shift for themselves. Several broods are often produced in a 
season therefore and the species is enabled to multiply rapidly 
and thus it is a fact that a piece of ground with the desired 
conditions is very soon the home of large numbers of the rodents 
which in order to occupy the time and procure sufficient food 
are liable to get into all sorts of mischief. These conditions often 
exist in an orchard where the sod mulch system is practiced and 
if something is not done to protect the trees immense damage 
may result from the mice gnawing the bark from the trees near 
the ground, or sometimes just beneath the surface. These 
circumstances are illustrated in a recent bulletin by the Ohio 
Agricultural Experiment Station with a full treatment of the 
methods of protecting young trees. 
Grain that is cut and placed in shocks in the field often 
receives more or less injury from this same mouse which is 
accused also of following in the burrows of moles and eating 
planted corn and other grains and seeds. In the case of wheat 
and other grain that is tied with twine the mice often get into 
the shocks and cut the bands, especially if this grain from any 
cause has to be left standing in the field longer than is usual. 
Microtus pinetorum scalopsoides Audubon and Bachman. 
Northern Pine Mouse. An attractive species with a much shorter 
tail than the meadow mouse. The typical species is southern, 
the first recorded specimens having been taken in the pine 
forests of Georgia. Two varieties are recognized, scalopsoides 
and auricular is , both of which have a distribution that includes 
part of Ohio at least. I have seen a number of Ohio specimens 
from Hamilton and Madison counties, some of those from the 
first named county appear to be the specimens that were taken 
for the prairie meadow mouse by Brayton and are the basis of 
the recorded occurrence of that species in the state. I saw the 
specimens in the Cincinnati Society of Natural History museum. 
I cannot conclude that any of these specimens studied are the 
variety auricularis although Vernon Bailey records a specimen 
of this mouse from Brookville, Indiana, a few miles from Cin- 
cinnati. Further collecting may add auricularis to the list of 
Ohio mammals. The northern pine mouse appears quite 
different from the meadow mouse in the field but may inhabit 
similar situations. The fully adult specimens are browner and 
