466 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 84 



set for flying squirrels on the trunks of birch trees. On Flat Top 

 Mountain, in the southern part of the State, they were trapped along 

 fallen trunks of chestnut trees and also at the bases of li\ing oak trees. 

 Near Odd they were trapped only on the gravelly banks of a small 

 stream flowing down the side of Flat Top Mountain, There was a 

 rather thick growth of rhododendron on both banks of this stream. 



Greenbrier County: White Sulphur Springs, 1. 



Pendleton County: Spruce Knob, altitude 4,860 feet, 5. 



Pocahontas County: Cranberry Glades, altitude 3,300 feet, 27; Travellers 



Repose, 10; Williams River, 12 miles west of Marlinton, 1. 

 Raleigh County: Odd, altitude 2,900 feet, 2; Flat Top, altitude 3,500 feet, 2; 



Winding Gulf, 4 miles southwest of Pemberton, 1. 

 Randolph Coiuity: Cheat Mountain, 3 miles west of Cheat Bridge, 4; Middle 



Mountain, 11 miles northeast of Durbin, 2. 



NEOTOMA PENNSYLVANICA Stone 



Allegheny Wood Rat 



This wood rat occurs generally in the more remote parts of the 

 mountains in eastern West Virginia, as well as in some of the north- 

 ern and southern counties. It prefers rock ledges, cav^es, and rock 

 slides, but so far as known it has never been taken in lowland swamps. 

 The nests are generally made in a mass of vegetable rubbish consist- 

 ing of sticks, leaves, nutshells, and the like on ledges or shelving 

 rocks. At Philippi one was caught near a nest on a rock ledge exposed 

 on a steep hill. There was also evidence that wood rats had been 

 living in the rock crevices. Local residents believed that most of the 

 wood rats in this area had died either of starvation or from the eft'ects 

 of the prolonged low temperatures during the winter of 1935-36. 

 During June 1936 wood rats were trapped on a rock ledge at Cran- 

 berry Glades, but no nests were found. Two others were subse- 

 quently seen one night on these rocks. Newcombe (1930, p. 204) has 

 made an ecological study of this wood rat in West Virginia, chiefly at 

 Prices Rock near Madison in Boone County, at Mitchells Knob near 

 Morgantown in Monongalia County, and at Cornwall's Cave near 

 Masontown in Preston County. Robert C. Patterson (1933, 1934) 

 also has published some observations on the habits of this wood rat. 

 A. M. Reese (1934, pp. 44, 45, 47) records this wood rat from Lower 

 Beaver Hole Cave in Monongalia County, Cornwall's Cave in Preston 

 County, and Smoke Hill Cave in Pendleton County. 



Barbour County: 4 miles east of Philippi, 1. 



Greenbrier County: White Sulphur Springs, 16. 



Pendleton County: Franklin, 11. 



Pocahontas County: Cranberry Glades, altitude 3,300 feet, 2. 



