THE TRADING-RAT. 833 



fill them with stores of eatables, the result of persevering foraging 

 expeditions for their families before winter is on them. Under a large 

 cotton wood-tree on a side-hill, partly underneath a fallen trunk, a 

 party of us found a mountain-rat's nest. It was built up nearly two 

 feet in height, the top or roof covering it sloped on all sides to shed 

 rain or snow ; tearing it to pieces, we found it was built closely of 

 grass, moss, chips, bones, and many leaves of the cactus (which grows 

 plentifully among the rocks) ; how they could cut off and convey this 

 thorny stuff, working it up with the other material, in the close cover- 

 ing, is hard to understand. Away down, running in almost under 

 the log so well built around, out of the reach of any possible moisture 

 or cold, a clever little bed of wool was found, made for the young 

 rats ; this wool, of which there was a quantity, must have been col- 

 lected bit by bit from the weeds through which the sheep passed, and 

 from their corrals. 



To reach this nest in the rat's house, there was quite a long, circu- 

 itous passage, entrance close to the ground, on the south side a little 

 den or hole to crawl through. In a little heap outside, not yet carried 

 in among their provisions, but lying close by, we found more than a 

 quart of fine, fresh-looking potatoes, brought from our own garden, 

 and it is an unsolved mystery how the potatoes were taken there ; 

 with not a scratch or mar upon them, or the skin bruised or broken. 

 The garden was a hundred feet away, considerably lower down, and a 

 stream of water, an irrigating ditch, to be crossed to reach it. One 

 person suggested that the rats might have rolled them all the way, 

 and across some poles thrown over the stream. 



Destroying this nest, a couple of rats darted up the standing tree, 

 and there we were surprised to find another nest had been commenced 

 in the forks of the tree. We destroyed this nest also ; but here comes 

 in another mystery, a puzzling question : How could the rats climb 

 that tree and carry up stores for the winter? This nest was probably 

 twenty-five or thirty feet from the ground. 



I asked a ranchman a few days ago, who was talking about them, 

 if he was afraid of them (I meant of their bite). " No," said he, " and 

 they are not afraid of me ; they have waked me many a time, sitting 

 up on the floor of my cabin and rapping their tails like a dog ! " 



A description in Appletons' " Cyclopaedia " seems in some respects 

 to tally pretty well, under the name of " The Florida Rat." It de- 

 scribes these rats as " very abundant in the Southern Atlantic and Gulf 

 States, and occasionally found in the West. The habits vary much in 

 different localities, living in some places in the woods, in others under 

 stones, or in the ruins of buildings ; in swampy districts they heap up 

 mounds, two or three feet high, of grasses, leaves, and sticks, cemented 

 by mud ; sometimes the nest is made in the fork or hollow of a tree ; 

 are very active, and excellent climbers ; their food consists of corn, 

 nuts, cacti, and crustaceous food, various roots, and fruits ; disposition 



VOL. XXYII. 53 



