HESPEROMYS LEUCOPUS. 
169 
in the earth several inches below the surface, in which the young are 
reared. Mr. Kennicott says he has known of “ numerous instances 
in which several have been observed inhabiting the same hole in a 
tree with a family of flying squirrels.’’ 
I have found this species with young at various times from April 
until November, but do not know how many litters it has in a 
season. As late as the 8th of November (1883) a nest was ploughed 
up in one of our fields at Locust Grove. It was lined with feathers 
and contained half-grown young. On the 29th of the same month I 
secured in one trap a female and her young, which were two-thirds 
grown. The mother bore evidence of having recently been nursed, 
and the stomach of the youngsters contained nothing but milk. 
From three to six are produced at a birth. 
The young are leaden-gray in color and their ears are dispropor- 
tionately large. Late in June the first litter begins to show pale 
fawn color — generally commencing on the flanks. 
Throughout its southern range, and even so far north as southern 
New England and portions of New York, the White-footed Mouse, 
like the red, gray, and flying squirrels, is known to construct “out- 
side nests ” for the reception of its young. Such nests are usually 
more or less cocoa-nut shaped, and sometimes measure a foot in 
longest diameter. They consist of moss, grasses, leaves, inner bark, 
and other similar substances. The opening is at or near the bottom. 
They are commonly placed on a horizontal branch at a varying dis- 
tance from the ground. Those that I have found have generally 
been in thickets overrun with Smilax , and were rarely more than ten 
feet high. Nests of birds are sometimes refitted and occupied by 
these animals. In the Adirondacks I have never known them to 
build or inhabit outside nests. 
Dr. Barton, in 1804, published a note “On a species of North- 
American Wandering Mouse,” which, from the meagre description 
given, seems to have been the White-footed Mouse. The Doctor 
says 
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