86 
ORDERS OF MAMMALS— GNAWING ANIMALS 
thick-bodied, short-legged, and sharp-nosed. 
The ears are extremely short, and quite hidden 
in the fur; the legs are short, the feet rat-like, 
and the tail is so very short that it also is half 
hidden by the fur. The fur is long, fluffy and 
fine; brown, brownish-gray, or mottled in sum- 
mer, but snow-white in winter. The length of 
the head and body is 4 to 5 inches, and of the tail, 
J inch. 
The Lemming is found from Latitude 56° 
northward to the whole arctic coast; in Labra- 
dor, Greenland, the arctic islands, and on as far 
north as man has ever gone on land. It prefers 
Its ears are very small, and do not rise above the 
fur on the head. The type species, known as 
Cooper’s Lemming Mouse , 1 is only two-fifths 
the size of the Hudson Bay Lemming. It inhabits 
the northeastern United States, from Massa- 
chusetts to Minnesota, and southward to North 
Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana and Iowa. Its 
color above is yellowish-brown washed with 
black, with bluish-gray or whitish underparts. 
Length, 31 to 4 inches; tail, f inch. Other spe- 
cies of Lemming Mice inhabit Canada, Labra- 
dor, New Hampshire, Washington, Kansas and 
Alaska. 
HUDSON BAY LEMMING. FIELD MOUSE. 
Winter and summer peiage. 
open, dry, moss-covered uplands, and is not 
found in timbered regions. Often a district of 
acceptable ground is covered with a wide-spread- 
ing network of runways, just below the surface. 
Mr. C. H. Townsend, who has kept them in cap- 
tivity, says they are kind-spirited and sociable 
little creatures, fond of attention, and much 
given to standing up and hopping about on their 
hind legs. In summer they store up supplies 
of vegetable food in their runways for use in 
winter. 
The Lemming Mouse, or False Lemming, 
is interesting chiefly because it is a connecting 
link between the true lemmings and the mice. 
The Field Mouse, or Meadow Mouse , 2 
stands as a murine monument to scientific en- 
deavor. Since 1798, the genus of this group — 
long known as Ar-vic'o-la — has been described 
under twenty-four different names, and the type 
species has received nineteen names besides its 
own! But, through a century of misnaming in 
Latin, its original English name, Meadow Mouse, 
has stood unchanged ! 
The trouble with this genus seems to have 
been due to exaggerating the importance of triv- 
ial characters, molar teeth and claws. Externally 
1 Synaptomys cooperi. 
2 Microtus pennsylvanicus. 
