MEADOW-MICE[1]—HAMSTERS—DORMICE
“Another kind of rodent now calls for our attention: it is the family of meadow-mice, commonly confounded with rats. Meadow-mice are easily recognized by their short, slightly hairy tail.
“The meadow-mouse is about as large as a common mouse. Its coat is of a yellowish hue mixed with gray above and dirty white underneath. The tail is only one-quarter as long as the body. The eyes are large and prominent, the ears rounded, hairy, and standing out but little from the fur. The head is large and less pointed than that of the ordinary mouse.
“In its rapid and abundant breeding the meadow-mouse is one of the farmer’s chief foes. It overruns grain-fields especially, cutting down the stalks to nibble the ears. After harvest it attacks clover roots, carrots, potatoes, and the products in general of our kitchen-gardens. In winter it digs under the furrows to eat the seeds sown there. If the soil is so frost-bound as not to permit it to reach the buried seed, it retires to the stacks of grain, where it does great damage. It never makes its way into [[107]]our dwellings. Meadow-mice appear to emigrate from one country to another in colonies when the country they have ravaged can no longer supply them with food; at any rate, from time to time, once or twice in a decade, they suddenly appear in countless droves that are a real scourge to the country visited. The best destroyers of these creatures are nocturnal birds of prey, as is proved by the presence of their skulls, bones, and skins in the balls that are thrown up by these birds after digestion. Some say diurnal birds of prey, buzzards in particular, are equally fond of them. It is not at all uncommon to find in a buzzard’s crop as many as ten or more meadow-mice.
“The underground meadow-mouse is much less common in France than the one just described, from which it differs in its gray-and-blackish coat, its somewhat smaller tail, and its tiny eyes. But the greatest difference is in its habits. The first-mentioned lives in the fields, especially in grain-fields, while the second frequents meadows and kitchen-gardens. It feeds on various kinds of vegetables, such as celery, artichokes, carrots, potatoes, and cardoons. It seldom shows itself out of its underground tunnels, and on account of its habit of lurking beneath the surface it is called the underground meadow-mouse.
“The amphibian meadow-mouse is commonly known by the name of water-rat. We can easily tell it from the black rat, which is of about the same size, [[108]]by its red coat, its short tail (which is not quite half the length of its body), and its larger and less pointed head. It burrows under the banks of streams, ditches, and marshes, where it feeds chiefly on roots, but does not disdain small fish when it can catch them. It is a good swimmer and diver. Sometimes it makes its way into kitchen-gardens, where it does the same sort of harm as the underground meadow-mouse, and into orchards, where it gnaws the base of young trees.
Lemming
“The lemming is never seen around here. It frequents the coasts of the Arctic Ocean in Norway and Lapland. I will tell you something about it on account of its curious way of traveling from one country to another, of which our meadow-mouse offers us a far less striking example. The lemming, with its very short and hairy tail, its big head, and its stocky body, has the appearance of a small rabbit. Its coat is red marbled with black and brown.
“At the approach of severe cold weather, and sometimes with no apparent reason, the lemmings leave their haunts in the high mountain chains of Norway and set out on a long journey toward the sea. The emigrating horde, composed of myriads of individuals, trot in a straight line over all obstacles, never allowing themselves to be turned from their course. In traveling in a line, one after another, [[109]]says Linnæus, the great Swedish naturalist, they trace straight parallel furrows, two or three fingers deep and several ells apart. They devour everything eatable that obstructs their passage, all roots and herbage. Nothing turns them from their course. Let a man appear in their path, and they slip between his legs. If they come to a haystack they gnaw a tunnel through it; reaching a rock, they skirt it in a semicircle and then resume their original direction. Should a lake be encountered on their route, they swim across it in a straight line, however wide it may be. If a boat is in their way in the middle of a body of water, they clamber over it and jump into the water again on the other side. A swiftly flowing river does not stop them: they plunge into the foaming current even if they all perish.”