Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-06-13
The MeadOW-MOuse.

The most common of all our field mice
is the short-tailed meadow the
Arvicola. [ find it in the woods, out on
the prairies, and in the hay-felds. In
summer these little creatures inhabit the
low, wet meadows in great numbers.
When the heavy rains of autumn drive
them out, they move to higher and dryer
ground, and look for some hillock, or old
ant-hill, under which to dig their home.
In digging they scratch rapidly with the
fore-feet a few times, and then throw
back the earth to great distance with
the hind feet, frequently loosening the
dirt with their teeth, and pushing it aside
with their noses. AS the hole grows
deeper horizontally they will lie on
their backs and digoverhead, every little
while backing slowly out, and
showing the loose earth to the entrance
These winter burrows are only five or six
inches below the surface, and ometimes
are simply followed out under great
stone, but are remarkable for the numer-
Gus and complicated chambers and side
passages of which they are composed.
In one of the largest rooms of this subter-
ranean house is placed their winter bed,
formed of fine dry grasses. Its shape
and size is about that of football,
with only a small cavity in the center,
entered through hole in the side, and
they creep in as do Arctic travellers into
their fur-bags.
Thou saw the fields Ids la ali s brae an waste,
An coy here, beneath the blast
Thou thought to dwell.''
Here five or six young mice are born,
and stay until the coming of warm
weather, by which time they are grown,
and 60 out to take care of themselves.
Sometimes one Of them, instead of hunt
ing up wife and getting home of his
own, will wander off by himself and live
alone like hermit, growing crosser as
he grows older
In the deepest part of the burrow is
placed their store of provisions. Uncov-
er one Of these little granaries in Novem-
Der, before the owners have used much
of it, and you might find five or six
quarts of seeds, roots, and small nuts.
Out on the prairie this store would con-
sist chiefly of the round tubers, like very
small potatoes, of the spike-hower, a few
juicy roots of some other weeds and
grasses, bulbs of the wild onion, and so
forth. If "a wheat or rye patch was near,
there would be quantities of grain; and
if you should open nest under log or
stump in the woods, you might discover
a hundred or SO chestnuts, beech-nuts,
and acorns, nicely shelled. All these
stores are carried to the burrows, often
from long distances, in their baggy
cheeks, which are mouse's pockets, and
they work with immense industry,
knowing just when to gather this and
that kind of food for the winter. A
friend of mine, who had farm near the
Hudson River, had nice field of rye,
which he was only waiting day or two
longer to harvest until it should be quite
ready. But the very night before he
went to cut it, the mice stole a large por-
ton of the grain and carried it off to
their nests in the neighboring woods.
Hunting up these nests he got back from
two of them about half bushel of rye,
which was perfectly good. Sometimes
they build nests in the rslsset corn-shocks
left standing in the sere October fields,
and store UP there heaps of food, al
though there may be no necessity, SO
firmly fixed in their minds is the idea of
preparing for the future. But they eat
great deal, and their stores are none
too large to outlast the long, dreary
months, when the ground is frozen hard,
and the meadows are swept by the wintry
winds, or packed under blanket Of
snow.-Ermest Mgersoll, St. Nicholas.