CHAPTER IX. 
FIELD MICE — DESCRIPTION — THE MEADOW MOOSE-THE MARSH 
CAMPAGNOL— THE HAIRY CAMPAGNOL OR COTTON RAT— THE 
WOOD-RAT— THE LEMMING. — THE BLACK RAT — THE COMMON 
MOUSE— THE POUCHED RAT AND JUMPING MOUSE— THE WOOD 
CHUCK.— QUEBEC, FRANKLIN, PARRY’S AND HOOD’S MARMOT.— 
THE PRAIRIE DOG, AND DESCRIPTION. 
Field Mice ( Arvicolce ). There are thirty-four known 
species, though here we only enumerate those most likely to 
be met with. 
Description . — Color grayish-brown above ; yellowish lead 
color below : eyes moderately large and prominent ; opening of 
the ears large ; tail short and sparsely covered with hairs. 
The Meadow Mouse ( Arvicola riparius) is the most 
common of this species : and at times they become so greatly 
multiplied as to do much injury to the stacks of hay and 
grain. They have their burrows in the banks of streams, and 
under old stumps and logs ; and numerous furrows may be 
seen in places where the little animals are plentiful along 
the roots of the grass, forming lanes in which they may travel 
in various directions from their burrows. Their nests are 
sometimes constructed in their burrows, and are also found 
at the season of hay harvest in great numbers among the 
vegetation on the surface of the ground. Were it not for 
the extraordinary fecundity possessed by these creatures, 
producing six or eight at least three times a year, they would 
long ago have become extinct, for the owl, the hawk, the fox, 
the crow, the cat, &c., all combine to check their undue multi- 
plication. 
The Marsh Campagnol (Arvicola Floridanus) has been 
partly described by Ord, further than which nothing definite 
