RATS AND MICE FAMILY 



bushy. Young : Slate gray above, white below ; tail 

 not so well haired. 



Measurements. — Total length, 15.5 inches; tail verte- 

 brae, 7.5 inclies ; hind feet, a trifle over I inch. 



Range. — South Atlantic and Gulf Coast and lower 

 Mississippi \'alley. 



Food. — .A. large variety of seeds, grains, leaves of 

 different plants, and other vegetable matter. 



Remarks. — Thirty-four species and subspecies of 

 Wood Rats are found north of the Rio Grande, most 

 of them belonging to the round-tailed or narrow-tailed 

 section of the genus. 



Rel.\ted Species 



Eastern Wood Rat, or Eastern Pack Rat. — Nco- 

 toma flitridana flondi.iiui (Ord). Typical animal as 

 described above. Atlantic Coast region from South 

 Carolina to Florida. 



Pennsylvania Wood Rat. — Ncotoina pcnnsylvanica 

 Stone. Tail less than head and body ; ears moder- 



ately large. Southern New York to northern Alabama, 

 westward to Kentucky and Tennessee. 



Small-footed Wood Rat. — Ncotoina iiiicrol^us ini- 

 crolyiis Baird. Southeastern Colorado and southern 

 Kansas south through Oklahoma and central Texas. 



Dusky-footed Brush Rat. — Ncotoina fuscipes fus- 

 cipcs Baird. Size large ; tail long ; ears large ; upper 

 surface of hind feet dusky ; ankles blackish. Pacific 

 Coast region from San Francisco Bay north to Salem, 

 Oregon. 



Desert Brush Rat. — Ncotoina dcscrtoruin Mer- 

 riam. Pelage very soft; tail short, brownish bufif 

 above with mi.xture of black hairs. California, Nevada, 

 Oregon, Utah. Colorado in desert areas. 



White-throated Brush Rat. — Ncotoina albigula 

 albigiila Hartley. .A large dark form; grayish-yellow 

 brown above, thickly lined with black. Northern New 

 Mexico, central Te.xas, western Arizona. 



Brushy-tailed Wood Rat. — Ncotoina cincrca cincrca 

 (Ord). See special synopsis below. 



The group of Wood Rats, Ncotoina, is a very 

 large one and in general is distributed over 

 nearly all of North .\merica. The Wood Rat 

 may be easily recognized by the clear white 

 nnderparts contrasting noticeably with the slaty 

 upper ])arts, as well as by the long densely 

 haired tail, these characters being sufficient to 

 separate it at a glance from the Norway Rat, 

 the only rodent with which it could be con- 

 fused. 



Being a rather adaptive group Wood Rats are 

 found living not only in timbered areas but on 

 the desert as well, and thus, as might be ex- 

 pected, some variation in coloration is encoun- 

 tered. In addition a somewhat distinct subgroup 

 or subgenus of these Rats having tails decidedly 

 more bushy is found in western North America. 



The Wood Rats are in many respects the most 

 interesting of all : and some of them are really 

 handsome animals. They are not to be asso- 

 ciated with the common Brown or Wharf Rat. 

 When the word " rat " is mentioned, most per- 

 sons at once think of those filthy stable-haunters 

 and plagtie-conveyors introduced from the Old 

 World. Wood Rats, however, are of a difl^erent 

 genus, indigenous to America, and are clean, 

 velvety-furred animals of exemplary habits. 

 They have even been declared to be good eating. 

 _-Mr. Vernon Bailey relates that when he was 

 gathering specimens in Missouri, three or four 

 of those collected were cooked at the ranch 

 where he was staying and were pronounced 

 " better than Gray Squirrels. The meat was 

 very tender and of good flavor, with no trace 

 of the external musky odor peculiar to Wood 

 Rats." 



Some Wood Rats live in woods and swamps; 

 some are to be found, as in Nebraska, from the 

 bases to the tops of mountain ridges ; some make 

 their home in rock ledges or broken cliffs. The 

 U'hitc-throatcd Wood Rat is a clilT-dweller, 

 always keeping to the rocks. 



A characteristic of all the species is the house 

 which they construct. In the selection of a site 

 some of these animals show considerable intelli- 

 gence. The Baird Small-footed Wood Rat, for 

 instance, has its favorite building site " in and 

 around a bunch of the blades of the prickly pear, 

 where the stack of rubbish — cow-chips, sticks, 

 bark, leaves, stones, bones, pieces of metal, dishes, 

 leather, rags, or any other available material, 

 well salted with bits of cactus and other thorny 

 things — is often built into a dome four or five 

 feet high.'" Most of these houses are so well 

 protected with thorns that they are rarely mo- 

 lested, even by the tough-hided Badger. But 

 " how Rats themselves can run over these houses 

 and along the trails strewn with cactus spines 

 and never show a scratch on the bare pink and 

 white soles of their feet is a mystery." 



Some of these Rats give evidence of consider- 

 able mental capacity. The common Wood Rat, 

 for instance, shows such ingenuity in disposing 

 of stolen property that its pranks, attested b_\' 

 unexceptionable testimony, are almost beyond 

 belief. Dr. Hornaday humorously says of it 

 that " seemingly its chief object in life is to play 

 practical jokes on mankind." In the American 

 Journal of Science for 1877, Mr. A. W'. Chase 

 thus relates his discovery of a Wood Rat's nest 

 in an uninhabited house in Oregon : " This house 

 was left uninhabited for two years, and, being at 



