MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 183 



remarks : " A few specimens of unusually large size were captured 

 some years ago by J. G. Bell, near Piermont, on the Hudson River, 

 but I have not heard of any in intermediate localities [New York and 

 Society Hill, South Carolina]." Mi-. George Gibbes states that he 

 "caught a specimen, many years ago, in Massachusetts."* Audu- 

 bon ami Bachman remark that specimens of it have been obtained in 

 North Carolina, and that they had "observed a few nests in the valleys 

 of the Virginia mountains," and that they had " somewhere heard it 

 stated that one or two had been captured as far to the north as Mary- 

 land." f 



31. Sigmodon hispidus Say $• Ord. Cotton Eat. 

 Arvicola hispidus Godman, Am. Nat. Hist., II, 68, 1826. 

 Arvicola hortensts Harlan, Faun. Am., 138, 1825. 

 Arvicola ferrugineus Harlan*, Am. Journ. Sci., X, 285, 1826. 

 Sigmodon hispidum Say & Ord, Journ. Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci., IV, ii, 354, pi. x, 



figs. 5-8, 1825. — Baird, N. Am. Mam., 503, 1857. 

 Sigmodon Berlandien Baird, Proc. Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci., VII, 333, 1855. 



Ibid., N. Am. Mam., 50-1. 



Abundant throughout the country along the St. John's River, 

 and also on Indian River, whence Mr. Maynard brought fifteen speci- 

 mens. They are quite a pest to the farmers, who often successfully 

 resort to poison to reduce their numbers. By scattering grain poi- 

 soned with strychnine about their fields they are able to destroy hun- 

 dreds with slight trouble. Different specimens vary considerably in 

 color, from gray through yellowish-brown to rufous. The so-called 

 Sigmodon Berlandieri, from Texas and New Mexico, seems undistin- 

 guishable from S. hispidus. 



In its general economy, the cotton rat represents the Arvicola? of the 

 North, especially A. riparius. 



Concerning .S\ Berlandieri, Professor Baird remarks : " This species is 

 readily distinguishable from .S'. Imp'ulus by the much lighter color above, 

 where it is grayish-yellow brown instead of distinct reddish-brown ; the 

 tail is considerably longer and covered by finer annuli. The toes are 

 shorter, and the metatarsus shorter, while the feet are nearly the same 

 length. The claws, however, are much weaker." The tail in this species 

 is said to be " equal to or longer than the trunk " ; the " color above gray- 

 ish-yellow brown, lined with black "; while 5. hispidus is said to have the 



* Xat. Hist. Wash. Terr., Zool., p. 12S, 1SG0. 

 t Quad. X. Am., Vol. I, p. 36. 



