. The American natural history : a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America . Natural history. 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;
. The American natural history : a foundation of useful knowledge of the higher animals of North America . Natural history. 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
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