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Harvest Mouse
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- Length
- 5.05 inches.
- Description
- Front (incisor) teeth grooved. Colour russet brown, darker with more black hairs on the head and middle of the back. Grayish white beneath tail, white below, dusky above, rather scantily haired, feet white. The ears are proportionately much shorter than those of the white-footed mouse.
- Range
- Coast districts of North Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida, two allied forms occur in West Virginia and South Florida.
- Range
- White sulphur Springs, W. Va., and doubtless in Virginia.
- Range
- Southern Florida.
This is the smallest mouse of the Eastern States and resembles a diminutive white-footed mouse with short ears. The grooved incisor teeth, however, are peculiar and distinguish it from any other long-tailed mouse.
The harvest mouse is another resident of the Southern States and its favourite haunts according to Mr. Bangs, are grass fields, fence rows and old field partly grown up with deciduous trees where the ground is covered with bunches of brown grass. Its nest is placed on the surface of the ground among the tall grass.
Varieties of the Harvest Mouse
1. Harvest Mouse. Reithrodontomys lecontii (Aud. and Bach.)
Description and range as above.
2. Surber's Harvest Mouse. R. lecontii impiger Bangs. Slightly smaller and richer in colour.
3. Dickinson's Harvest Mouse. R. lecontii dickinsoni (Rhoads). Darker and more sooty in colour.