American native mice are all of one or the other of the remaining sub-families, or else do not belong to the Muridce at all. The short tailed meadow-mice (see FIELD-MOUSE), the neotomas (see Woon-RAT), lemmings (q.v.), and their allies are elsewhere described. The most of our smaller mice belong to the sub family Stgmodontincr, characterized promi nently by having cheek-pouches, and represented in the Old World by the hamsters. Five genera and about 75 so-called species have been cat alogued, but probably further study will greatly reduce the number. Onychomys is a rather short-tailed, fossorial genus of the plains region and northern Mexico. Sigmodon is another genus of Florida and the Southwest, taking its name from the sigmoid form of the cusps of the molars; Reithrodontomys embraces several very small burrowing brown mice of the same re gion; and Oryzomys includes the large, hand some °rice-field of the Southern States (O. palustris). The fifth genus, Peromyscus, contains the most numerous and familiar of the long-tailed field-mice. These are the °wood mice,° °deer-mice° and "cotton-mice," more familiar under the old name Hesperomys, and commonly represented by the white-footed mouse (P. americanus, or H. leucopus), which occurs all over the more temperate parts of the continent. This species is somewhat larger than the house-mouse, and is yellowish brown above, darker on the hack, the lower parts of the body and tail and the upper surface of the feet white; the young are dark slaty; the eyes and ears are large, and the fur long and soft. It is nocturnal in its habits, as active as a squir rel', nesting in trees, in the fields, in barns and houses, and making a dwelling resembling a covered bird's nest; it feeds principally on grain, seeds, nuts and insects; and in newly settled districts comes into dwellings and gran aries and is as mischievous as the house-mouse. Species with similar habits are a beautiful golden-haired southern one (P. aureolus) ; the large, dark-brown, gray-bellied cotton-mouse (P. gossypinus), very numerous in the South Atlantic S'tates; the 'red-backed" or Michigan mouse (P. michiganensis) of the North Central
States, and several others.
Coues and Allen, 'Mono graph of the Rodentia' (Washington 1877) ; Merriam (and others), 'North American Fauna' (Washington 1889 and subsequently) ; Stone and Cram, 'American Animals' (New York 1902) ; Ingersoll, Life of Orchard and Field' (New York 1902) ; and the books of Audubon, Godman, Kennicott, Merriam, De Kay, Baird, Coues, Herrick and other natural ists.
a group of peculiar birds of central Africa, constituting the family Coliidce and the suborder Colii, and also known as colies. They are of small size, grayish colors, marked with darker tints and in some species with touches of brighter colors; have finchlike beaks, crests, short, weak wings, very long tails and remarkably strong feet. They are active, but fly little, spending their lives mostly in creeping about the branches of trees in a way that with their dun colors strongly sug gests the behavior of mice. They are fond of hanging head downward, and at night gather in bands that roost together in hanging postures as closely as they can crowd. Their food con sists mainly of fruit; and they place their cup shaped nests in low trees and bushes.
the name of various small plants, suggested by the shape and appearance of the leaves: (1) a borage of the genus Myo sotis, more generally known in the United States as uforget-me-not" or sometimes pion-grass,° small furry herbs, growing in damp and shady places through the temperate regions and bearing clusters of minute blue and white, °yellow-eyed° flowers. (2) The marsh cudweed or wartwort (Gnaphatium uliginosum). (See CUDWEED). (3) One of the wound-worts (Stachys germanica). (4) Any of several chick weeds (q.v.), especially the widely scattered Cer astium viscosum. (5) The cats-foot, or plaintain leaved everlasting (Antenneria plantoginafolia). (6) A European hawkweed (Hieracium pito sella). (7) The cruciferous plant Sisymbrium Thailand.