The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-10-17
MEADOW MICE

It was a bright morning in the late summer, and clad in rubber hip boots and waterproof coat. I lay in the wet grass at the edge of swamp, watching a family of muskrats, who were busy with some work which was anxious to see more of. But they were not in the least interested in my obser- vations. and inconsiderately moved away long before I had finished with them. I was about to follow, when something moving in the grass near by attracted my attention. There was something pushing It's way along under some matted dead grass, which, heaved every few moments, as it was pushed upward with irregular jerky move ments. Presently, at spot where the grass was thin, there was polsed out a little -dark-brown head, with a blunt, bewhiskered, terrnbling nuzzle, black beadly eyes, and short ears, almost buried in the fur It was the head of meadow mouse one of the myriad little beings which live their harmless quiet lives in our outlying fields and meadows, and of which most of us see nothing save an occasional specimen brought in by the cat. The little creature before me looked about for a moment, and see- ing nothing to alarm her, came boldly into the open. Her body. which was the same color as her head, was round and rather stout, and terminated in very short, straight tail. The legs were also very short, and the body serned to touch the ground as the little creature moved. She nosed about for few moments, and then stood upright upon her hind legs, with her forepaws hanging down in front, turning her head first this way and then that, in order to get a good view of her surroundings. Nothing
 alarmed her, so down she dropped on all fours again, and came straight toward me. The first obstacle which she en- countered was my leg, and to the
 problem of getting past this huge bar rier she gave her entire attention. First of all she pushed her nose as far as pos- sble under my rubber boot, and tried to pass under 1t, as she had passed un- der the grass by lifting it up with her head. But the leg was too heavy, so this plan was abanoned. There was nothing for 1t but hard work, so she set to, dig ging away with both ferepaws, looking up every now and then with her bright, eyes shining through 8 ring of mud. Whenever a little heap of mould had been scraped under the body, the hind feet were brought into play, and with
 these the dirt was flung far away in the rear. When roots were encountered they were bitten through with the teeth, and once saw the little mouse bring out a stone in her mouth. It was but a short time before the subway was complete. and the furry engineer came out upon the other side. The knee of my other leg was bent, so there was no difficulty in passing under that one, and away went the mouse until she came to a lit- tie mound of drifted rubbish. She seized the end of a long piece of grass in her mouth, and ran off with it at full speed, through the little tunnels she had made. and back to the meadow. She was gone for few moments and then she reappeared, made another trip to the pile of rubbish, and back with mouthful of 1t. I saw this done several times, and then followed to see what was done with the grass. In the mead- ow close by. found what I expected, the meadow mouse's nest sphere of dried grass somewhat larger than a baseball, lying right upon the surface of the ground. Somewhere underneath it was the mouse herself, for she popped out as Approached.
 A few days later it was the first of September, remember-I visited the nest again, an in it were eight new ly-born mice, blind and hairless whose stocky build and wrinkled skins sug- gested young hippopotamii. seen through a reducing glass. I called again the next day, but the nest was empty; the mother had probably spirited the babes away to a new and more secluded home This instinct to save the lives or their young by remov- ing them from nest which is known to their enemies, is common to many ani- mals, but seem particularly strong in the meadow mouse. I have watched one Of these little rodents remove her entire family of eight, one at time, in