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$Unique_ID{QAD00065}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Wilson's Meadow-Mouse (Meadow Vole)}
$Subject{Wilson's Meadow-Mouse (Meadow Vole); Arvicola; Pennsylvanica; audio}
$Journal{Quadrupeds of North America: Volume I}
$Volume{Vol. 1:341-346}
$Genus{Arvicola}
$Species{Pennsylvanica}
$Common_Name{Wilson's Meadow-Mouse}
$Log{
Plate XLV*00065P1.scf,37050020.aud
Audio*37050020.aud
Genus*00064.txt}
(C) (P) Library of Natural Sounds 1990-91, 1992,
All rights reserved.
Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992
A U D U B O N ' S M A M M A L S
By John James Audubon, F. R. S., &c. &c.
AND
The Rev. John Bachman, D. D., &c. &c.
-------------------------------------------
VOL. I.
--------------------------------
ARVICOLA PENNSYLVANICA.--ORD
[Microtus pennsylvanicus]
WILSON'S MEADOW-MOUSE.
[Meadow Vole]
PLATE XLV.--Two figures.
A. supra, cervinus; subtus, subalbicans; auriculis abreviatis
rotundatisque.
CHARACTERS.
Brownish fawn-colour above; beneath, grayish-white; eyes, small; ears,
short and round.
SYNONYMES.
SHORT-TAILED MOUSE, Forster, Phil. Trans., vol. lxii., p. 380, No. 18.
MEADOW MOUSE, Pennant's Arctic Zoology, vol. i., p. 133.
THE CAMPAGNOL or MEADOW MOUSE of PENNSYLVANIA, Warden's Description of the
U.S., vol. v., p. 625.
ARVICOLA PENNSYLVANICA, Ord, Guthrie's Geography.
ARVICOLA PENNSYLVANICA, in Wilson's Ornithology, vol. vi, pl. 50, fig. 3.
ARVICOLA PENNSYLVANICA, Harlan, F. A., p. 144.
ARVICOLA ALBO-RUFESCENS, Emmons, Mass. Reports, p. 60, variety.
ARVICOLA HIRSUTUS, Emmons, Mass. Report.
ARVICOLA HIRSUTUS, Dekay, Nat. Hist. N.Y., p. 86.
DESCRIPTION.
Body, robust, cylindrical, broadest across the shoulders; diminishing
towards the loins; fur, on the whole body, long and fine, but not lustrous; on
the upper surface (in winter specimens) half an inch long, but not more than
half that length beneath.
Head, large and conical; forehead, arched; nose, rather blunt; incisors,
projecting; eyes, small, situated equidistant from the auditory opening and the
point of the nose; the longest whiskers, about the length of the head; nostrils,
lateral ; nose, bilobate, clothed with short hairs; lips, fringed with longer
hairs; mouth, beneath, not terminal; ears, large, rounded, membranous, concealed
by the fur, naked within except along the margins, where they have a few long
soft hairs; auricular opening, large. The neck is so short that the head and
shoulders seem united, like those of the shrew-mole.
Fore-feet slender, having four toes and a thumb, which is furnished with a
sharp nail; nails, small, compressed, slightly hooked and sharp. The toes have
five tubercles; the second toe from the thumb is longest, the third a little
shorter, the first still shorter, and the outer one shortest.
The hind-feet are a little longer than the fore-feet; the third and fourth
toes from the inner side are nearly of equal length, the second toe is a little
shorter, the fifth still shorter, and the first is shortest. The soles of the
hind-feet have five distinct tubercles; all the feet are clothed with short,
adpressed hairs. The tail is short, scaly, cylindrical, slightly clothed with
rigid hair extending beyond the vertebrae.
COLOUR.
Teeth, dark orange; fur, from the roots to near the tips, on every part of
the body, dark plumbeous. The colour differs a shade or two between winter and
summer. It may be characterized as brownish-gray above, a little darker on the
back. The lips, chin, throat, and abdomen, are light bluish-gray. Feet,
dark-brown; tail, brown above, and a shade lighter beneath; eyes, black;
whiskers, white and black.
DIMENSIONS.
Inches.
Length of head and body. . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Length of tail. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 3/4
Another specimen. Inches.
Length of head and body. . . . . . . . . . . . 5 1/2
Length of tail (vertebrae). . . . . . . . . . . 1 1/2
Length of tail including fur . . . . . . . . . . 1 3/4
HABITS.
We have had opportunities in New-York, Pennsylvania, and the New-England
States, of learning some of the habits of this species. It is, in fact, the
common Meadow-Mouse of the Northern and Eastern States.
Wherever there is a meadow in any of these States, you may find small
tortuous paths cut through the grass, appearing as if they had been partially
dug into the earth, leading to the roots of a stump, or the borders of some bank
or ditch. These are the work of this little animal. Should you dig around the
roots, or upturn the stump, you may find a family of from five to ten of this
species, and will see them scampering off in all directions; and although they
do not run fast, they have so many hiding places, that unless you are prompt in
your attack, they are likely to escape you. Their galleries do not run under
ground like those of the shrew mole, or the mischievous pine-mouse, (of
LECONTE,) but extend along the surface sometimes for fifty yards.
The food of this species consists principally of roots and grasses. During
summer it obtains an abundant supply of herds-grass, (Phleum pratense,) red-top,
(Agrostis vulgaris,) and other plants found in the meadows; and when the fields
are covered with snow it still pursues its summer paths, and is able to feed on
the roots of these grasses, of which there is always a supply so abundant that
it is generally in good condition. It is also fond of bulbs, and feeds on the
meadow-garlic, (Allium Canadense,) and red lily, (Lilium Philadelphicum.)
We doubt whether this active little arvicola ever does much injury to the
meadows; and in the wheat-fields it is not often a depredator, as it is seldom
seen on high ground. Still, we have to relate some of its habits that are not
calculated to win the affections of the farmer. In very severe winters, when
the ground is frozen, and there is no covering of snow to protect the roots of
its favourite grasses, it resorts for a subsistence to the stems of various
shrubs and fruit trees, from which it peals off the bark, and thus destroys
them. We possessed a small but choice nursery of fruit trees, which we had
grafted ourselves, that was completely destroyed during a severe winter by this
Meadow-Mouse, the bark having been gnawed from the wood for several inches from
the ground upwards. Very recently our friend, the late DR. WRIGHT, of Troy,
sent us the following observations on this species:--
"Two or three winters ago several thousand young fruit trees were destroyed
in two adjoining nurseries near our city; the bark was gnawed from them by some
small animal, for the space of several inches, the lowest part of the denuded
surface being about ten inches from the ground. I examined the premises the
following spring. The ground had been frozen very hard all winter, owing to the
small quantity of snow that had fallen. I supposed that some little animal that
subsists on the roots of grasses, had been cut off from its ordinary food by the
stony hardness of the ground, and had attacked the trees from the top of the
snow. I looked around for the destroyer, and found a number of the present
species, and no other. I strongly suspect that this animal caused the m