. The American natural history; a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America. Natural history. FIELD MICE AND VOLES 87 its species and varieties are so much alike that very few of them can be distinguislied from the general mass. The typical Field Mouse is a short-eared, short- tailed, thick-set tittle animal. It averages 4-j inches long, with a tail 1 i 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 f
. The American natural history; a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America. Natural history. FIELD MICE AND VOLES 87 its species and varieties are so much alike that very few of them can be distinguislied from the general mass. The typical Field Mouse is a short-eared, short- tailed, thick-set tittle animal. It averages 4-j inches long, with a tail 1 i 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' is, in form, very much like the meadow mouse, but in size it is smaller, and in habit it is cjuite 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 aUke, rather slender, and more graceful in form than the field mice, and the majority. GAPPER S RED-BACKED MOUSE. NORTHWESTERN VOLE. young fruit trees by barking them near the sur- face of the snow. When shocks of corn are avail- able these mice five high, hterally, 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. are reddish-brown above and grayish under- neath.
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