90 
ORDERS OF MAMMALS— GNAWING ANIMALS 
scarce (and rapidly becoming more so!) these 
pretty little creatures seem much more worthy 
of notice. I have many times found them nest- 
ing in cavernous and ill-smelling buffalo car- 
casses, and in the brain cavity or between the 
jaws of buffalo skulls from which the skin had not 
been removed by the hide-hunters. 
In some places I have lain awake at night to 
hate mice, for cause, and wish them all dead, 
by all manner of violent deaths; but on a bleak 
and wind-shaven Montana plain where the bleach- 
ing skulls of thousands of slaughtered buffalo lie 
elled over smoothly-shaven prairie divides miles 
away from all proper shelter. In the West, how- 
ever, they are found most frequently in the brush 
and timber of stream valleys, where the rank 
weeds and grasses produce seed on which they 
feed. In the eastern United States they are 
found in nearly all agricultural regions. They 
are active climbers, possess a wide range of in- 
telligence, and nest in all sorts of places, from 
ground burrows up to hollows in trees twenty 
feet from the ground. Of all mice, they are 
probably the most active climbers, and in fleeing 
1. WHITE-FOOTED MOUSE. 
2. LE conte’s harvest mouse. mole mouse. 
staring heavenward in mute protest against 
man’s inhumanity, an agile White-Footed Mouse, 
scurrying out of its warm nest of buffalo-hair 
between the jaws of a buffalo skull, appeals not 
in vain for my sympathy and protection. Out 
on the Great Plains the world always seems 
large enough to contain us both. The great 
buffalo range of 1883 is now so barren of wild 
life that to-day even wild mice are objects of 
interest. From the buffalo to the White-Footed 
Mouse the time has been less than twenty 
years. 
Many times in their wanderings from one 
buffalo carcass to another, these mice have trav- 
from a disturbed home the mother often carries 
her brood of young clinging to her body. Their 
food is seeds, small nuts and acorns, grain, and 
dried meat when available. 
Once in the wilds of Montana, we hauled some 
old logs to camp, for fire-wood. When one was 
cut up, we found in it a nest, made chiefly of 
feathers, containing five White-Footed Mice, 
snugly housed in the hollow. Packed close 
against the nest was a pint and a half of fine, 
clean seed, like radish seed, from some weed of 
the- Pulse Family. While the food-store was be- 
ing examined, and finally deposited in a pile upon 
the open ground, near the tent door, the five 
