HABITS OF PINE MICE, 21 
to their underground existence; so that within their 
:• pint* ini«v are about a- abundant a- other field m 1< 
Quick and Butler, writing of the food habits of the pine m< 
'ii Indiana, state that it lives upon the tender roots of young hickoi 
the young sprouts of white clover, the fruit of the red haw, and the 
tuberous roots of the wild violet (Viola cucullata). The writers 
found all but the fruit buried, some in deposits of n gallon in m bur 
row, and the caches sometimes extending I s inches below the surface 
of the ground. V T iolet roots predominated in these stores, Kenni- 
cotl also states that pine mice store acorns and nuts in burrows for 
winter use. Blasius and Brehm both state that the European species 
i.i/. Huhterranewt) prepares such stores. While personally I have 
never found such deposits, it is probable that our species have thi- 
habit to an extent greater than is generally known. 
From their Inane- in woods and thicket- nine mice invade held-. 
on-hard-, nurseries, dooryards, and gardens, passing always through 
underground runway-. Living in concealment, neither their presence 
nor the injury they inflict is suspected until the latter is past remedy. 
Bulbs, planted hopefully in autumn, appear not at all in spring, or 
only in the shape of sickly plants whose life substance has been 
gnawed away. Nursery and orchard tree- hen- and there put forth 
no leaves, and an examination of the root- discloses the nature of the 
dama| 
Potatoes, sweet potato*-, carrot-, beets, and other vegetables are 
eaten by pine mice, both while growing and when stored in pits or 
lying in piles in the held or garden. Potatoes partly matured or left 
E in the ground after maturity are eaten, and the injury is attrib- 
uted to mole-, because tunnel- supposed to be the work of mole- lead 
to the place of damage. I have investigated numerous cases of such 
injury and have invariably found either that the tunnel- were made 
by pine mice, or, if mole tunnel-, that they were frequented by mice. 
Trap- set in the tunnel- at the potato hills captured pine mice, and 
the starchy material found in the stomachs of those caught proved 
that they, and not moles, had been eating the potatoes. 
Pine mice occur in central and southern Europe, in the eastern 
United Mate-, and in a limited part of eastern Mexico. Those in the 
United State- occur chiefly in the Upper Austral zone. The typical 
species (M. pinetorum), with bright russet-brown color and glossy 
mole-like fur, is found only in part- of Georgia, South Carolina, and 
southern North Carolina. In the last-named State it grades into the 
subspecies scalopsoides, which is much more widely distributed, rang- 
ing northward to southern New York (Hudson Valley and Long 
Island) and westward to Illinois. West of the Allegheny Mountain- 
it occurs mainly north of the Ohio River, except in West Virginia. 
" American Naturalist, vol. 19, p. 116, 1885. 
