The mouse is a good colonizer, a good survivor, a fecund breeder, an opportunist; it is there to stay. Restrained by few predators and few competitors, its population fluctuates around a relatively high average level and, in summers following a big acorn crop, goes much higher still. A plague of mice will infest the little woodland, like rats on the road out of Hamelin. There will also be plenty of ticks. The ticks drink heartily of mouse blood and have a high rate of survival, because white-footed mice (unlike possums, catbirds, or even chipmunks) are not very good at grooming themselves
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