ZAPUS HUDSONIUS. 
199 
gy. Although we made some efforts many years ago, to place this 
matter beyond a doubt by personal observation, we regret that our 
residence, being in a region where this species does not exist, no 
favorable opportunity has since been afforded us. Naturalists 
residing in the Northern and Middle States could easily solve the 
whole matter, by preserving the animal in confinement through the 
winter.” * 
If, in Audubon’s time, there were grounds for questioning that 
this species hibernates, there are none at present. Robert Kenni- 
cott, in his valuable contribution to economic agriculture, states : 
“ Dr. Hoy informs me that, when he was a boy in digging out a 
rabbit in winter, he found a pair of this species in a state of pro- 
found torpor, exhibiting all the phenomena of perfect hibernation. 
They were in a large nest of leaves situated two or three feet be- 
low the surface.” f 
In the American Naturalist for June, 1872 (Vol. VI, No. 6, pp. 
330-332), the late Professor Sanborn Tenney published an article 
entitled “ Hibernation of the Jumping Mouse.” Without referring 
to a single published record or opinion, he narrates a personal 
experience so full of interest that I take pleasure in presenting it 
to my readers. Professor Tenney says : — 
“On the 18th of January of the present year (1872), I went 
with Dr. A. Patton of Vincennes, Indiana, to visit a mound situ- 
ated about a mile or a mile and a half in an easterly direction from 
Vincennes. While digging in the mound in search of relics that 
might throw light upon its origin and history, we came to a nest 
about two feet below the surface of the ground, carefully made of 
bits of grass, and in this nest was a Jumping Mouse ( Jaculus 
Hudsonius Baird) apparently dead. It was coiled up as tightly as 
it could be, the nose being placed upon the belly, and the long tail 
coiled around the ball-like form which the animal had assumed. I 
* Quadrupeds of North America, Vol. II, 1851, p. 355. 
f Patent Office Report for 1856, 1857, p. 97. 
