194 
MAMMALIA. 
Since the foregoing was written, Mr. Elisha Slade, of Somerset, 
Bristol County, Massachusetts, has favored me with a very in- 
teresting and detailed account of the habits of this species, portions 
of which are here reproduced. Mr. Slade says : “ The Long-tailed 
Jumping Mouse inhabits high land or low land, forest or pasture, 
cultivated field or swamp, and appears to be equally at home in 
either, and not numerous in any situation. It possesses a momen- 
tary agility second to no other Rodent, and a muscular strength 
of enormous power for so small a creature. . When suddenly dis- 
turbed it often moves away in a direct line, the first three or four 
leaps being eight or ten feet in length ; but these distances rapidly 
decline to about four feet, which are continued until it considers 
itself out of danger. This is not always the case, however, for it 
frequently takes an irregular course and jumps at diverse angles 
for several successive leaps, keeping the same general direction or 
changing at will. It can double, and quickly too, if pursued, and 
by its manoeuvers and instantaneous squattings can, and often does, 
elude a hawk or an owl ; and its spontaneous irregularities enable 
it to escape being brained by a weasel, or swallowed whole by the 
common black snake. . . . It feeds upon the buds, leaves, and 
twigs, of many kinds of plants ; upon seeds, grain, wild berries, 
chestnuts, acorns, grass, and to some extent upon the bark of 
shrubs. . . . As a rule, three litters are produced in a season, 
each consisting of from two to four young.” 
Barton, writing of this species in 1795, says: “Upon showing 
my drawing of the animal to an intelligent Indian who is settled at 
Oneida, he assured me that the same animal is very common at 
that place. This Indian, who is a Mohegan, moreover said, that 
in his language this Dipus is called Wauh peh Sous, which signifies 
the creature that jumps or skips like a deer l' He also says : “It 
often eets into the oraneries of the Indians settled at Oneida, in 
the State of New York, and proves very destructive to the Indian- 
corn. ... I have not learned, with certainty, at what time 
