574 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxxv. 



A male taken when half grown became so tame that it would eat 

 from my hand. It remained under cover of its box during the day. 

 but toward sunset would leave its retreat and begin to run about the 

 cage looking for food and clambering about, often hanging down- 

 ward from the roof of the cage. It would not allow me to pick it up, 

 but would voluntarily come to my hand and nibble it or take food 

 from it. Various kinds of food were given it ; cheese and dry oatmeal 

 were favorites. Among wild fruits none were eaten so greedily as 

 the berries of the buck-bush (/Symphoricarpos symphoricarpos). 

 These berries are here the most important single item of diet for 

 these mice in winter and also are eaten extensively by other mammals 

 as well as birds. Acorns were also readily eaten. Seeds of the red 

 bud (Cercis), the wahoo (Eitonymus), and the bitter-sweet (Celas- 

 trus) were eaten only when the articles of food above mentioned were 

 lacking. Seeds of the scarlet sumac (Rhus glabra) were rejected 

 entirely. 



A female with three young ate her offspring soon after being put 

 in the cage, but the old one lived for several months. At one time, 

 during my absence, she was without food, but ate the pasteboard box 

 which served her for a home; she must have subsisted on this for at 

 least a week. 



Two were taken about an old pond shortly after a period of excep- 

 tionally heavy rainfall. At this time salamander eggs had been 

 deposited in abundance around the edges of ponds and the receding 

 water left many of them stranded on the bank. The stomachs of 

 both of the white-footed mice taken at this place contained some 

 gelatinous matter which I could not positively identify, but which 

 resembled the coating of salamander eggs more closely than any other 

 substance apt to be found in such a place. 



Measurements, average of 10 adults: Total length, 160 mm.; tail, 

 70; hind foot, 19.5; ear from crown, 14. Cranial measurements of 

 the same : Greatest length of skull. 25.5 ; basilar length, 19 ; palat- 

 ilar length, 10.3; greatest width of braincase, 12; depth of brain- 

 case over bulla?, 9.3 ; maxillary tooth row, 4. 



SYLVILAGUS FLORIDANUS MEARNSI " (Allen). 

 PRAIRIE COTTONTAIL: RABBIT. 



Very abundant; the sink holes and rocks afford homes and hiding 

 places. Now and then rabbits wander into the eaves and usually 

 perish if they get away from the sink holes through which they enter 

 the larger chambers. The remains of three were found in the caves, 

 one of them comparatively fresh, the others quite old. 



" Mr. E. W. Nelson has identified the rabbits collected at Mitchell as S. f. 

 mearnsi. 



