1889.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 271 



REMARKS UPON THE ROUND-TAILED MUSKRAT, 

 NEOFIBER ALLENI, TRUE. 



BY FRANK C. BAKER. 



The original description of this animal appeared in Science, IV, 

 No. 75, 1884, p. 34. This was followed by one of a more detailed 

 character in the Proceedings of the United States National Museum, 

 VII, 1884, p. 170. The habits and distribution of this mammal 

 have been, until recently, matters of conjecture ; but, thanks to Mr. 

 Frank M. Chapman, we now have a number of interesting facts 

 regarding both its habits and distribution. 



The original place of capture by Dr. Whitttield, was at Georgiana, 

 which is situated near the southern extremity of Merritts Island in 

 Eastern Florida. Its present known locality is thirty miles south on 

 the peninsula, opposite Micco, at " Oak Lodge," the residence of Mr. 

 C. F. Latham. At this point the peninsula is about three-quarters 

 of a mile wide, with a fringe of mangrove-bordered islands on the 

 west shore. Upon the river side there are large savannas, caused by 

 the water of the river making frequent inroads into the land, and it is 

 upon these savannas that Xeofiber alleni may be found in large 

 numbers. The vegetation of the savannas consists largelv of 

 Rhlzophora mangle and Avicennla nitida (red and black mangrove) 

 and " sedge," Borrichia frutescenx, with occasionally black or "yellow 

 mangroves" scattered irregularly over the entire surface of the 

 savanna. The latter are also covered with grass to a height of 

 two or three feet. It is of this grass that Xeofiber constructs its 

 nest, placing it in hollow stumps, around the trunks of the " yellow 

 mangrove," or in the open savannas. The nests when placed in a 

 hollow are of no particular shape, seeming almost as if thrown 

 together to fill up the depression, but when placed in the open, or 

 about the foot of the yellow mangrove, they are then elegant pieces 

 of animal architecture, being of a pyriform shape, from ten to 

 twenty inches in height and nearly as large in their greatest 

 diameter. It was not at all unusual to see from ten to fifteen nests 

 from one point, but it is not probable that all of these were inhabited. 

 The nests are provided with two openings, situated invariably at 

 opposite sides leading from the single chamber within and connecting 

 with two under-ground passageways leading in opposite directions. 

 These runways are constructed just beneath the thick, matted grass 



