FIELD MICE AND VOLES 
87 
its species and varieties are so much alike that 
very few of them can be distinguished from the 
general mass. 
The typical Field Mouse is a short-eared, short- 
tailed, thick-set little animal. It averages 4^ 
inches long, with a tail 1 J inches long. Its color 
above is reddish-brown, while beneath it is 
whitish-gray. 
It is found from the Atlantic coast to the Da- 
kotas, feeding on roots and grasses. 
In severe winters, when the ground remains 
frozen for a long period, Field Mice are some- 
times forced to feed on bark, and frequently kill 
The Red-Backed Mouse 1 is, in form, very 
much like the meadow mouse, but in size it is 
smaller, and in habit it is quite different. It 
prefers to live in cool, damp woods and timbered 
regions, varying all the way from dark swamps 
and valleys to timbered mountain-tops; but 
it is seldom found in open country. 
They are found from Ontario, New England 
and New Jersey westward to California, and 
northward through Canada and Alaska, sixteen 
species and five subspecies. They are all very 
much alike, rather slender, and more graceful 
in form than the field mice, and the majority 
gapper’s red-backed mouse. 
young fruit trees by barking them near the sur- 
face of the snow. When shocks of corn are avail- 
able these mice live high, literally, feeding well, 
and being well housed at the same time. In 
husking shock corn in winter, many a nestful 
of Field Mice have we helped to turn out into the 
cold world; but the amount of grain they con- 
sumed was so insignificant we never grudged 
them their food. 
Taken as a whole, the Field Mice of various 
species inhabit nearly the whole of North Amer- 
ica north of Mexico and the Gulf, even to the 
remote islands of Bering Sea. I do not know 
of a state or province from which they have not 
been recorded. 
NORTHWESTERN VOLE. 
are reddish-brown above and grayish under- 
neath. The species most common in the east- 
ern United States, often called Gapper’s Field 
Mouse, is found westward to the Rocky Moun- 
tains. It is 3f inches in length of head and 
body, tail, If inches. In scientific lists of the 
mammals of North America, Red-Backed Mice 
are sometimes called Red-Backed “Voles.” 
The Voles of the genus Phe-nac'o-mys, are 
small brown mice, mostly of recent discovery, 
about the size of the red-backed mouse, in color 
1 Until recently this species has been considered 
identical with Evotomys rutilus of the Old World, 
and has been so called. Now, however, our species 
is considered quite distinct, and is called E. gapperi. 
