26o 



MAMMALS OF AMERICA 



It is unfortunate that the name " Kangaroo 

 Rat " has become attached to this group of 

 beautiful rodents: for, as Bailey says: "they 

 are as unratlike as they are widely removed 

 from the Marsupials." The Kangaroo Rats 

 have been termed the " handsomest Rats or 

 Mice in the new world " : and few persons who 

 have seen them will be inclined to dispute the 

 correctness of this characterization. They are 

 really very pretty creatures, with large, expres- 

 sive eyes, and their fur is as soft as silk and of 

 pleasing coloration. Like the Pocket Mice, they 



vate burrows. They do not hibernate, but they 

 carry considerable food into their chambers, to 

 be consumed during the day or, possibly, in bad 

 weather. They seem inditiferent to extremes of 

 temperature, and flourish equally in hot and 

 arid valleys and when running about on the 

 snow. The absence of water seems to cause 

 them no inconvenience, and they find subsis- 

 tence where vegetation is most scanty. 



These beautiful little rodents are closely re- 

 lated to the Pocket Mice which they resemble 

 in the possession of cheek pouches, but they are 



By permission of the New York Zoological Society 



KANGAROO RAT 

 The reason for the name given to this little rodent is shown in the above statuesque photograph from life 



possess external hair-lined cheek pouches, and 

 their skull is no thicker than a sheet of paper. 

 As their name implies, they have the appearance 

 of tiny Kangaroos, and their mode of progres- 

 sion resembles that of their namesake. The 

 tiny " hands " and the tail are not apparently 

 used in locomotion. Loring, who turned loose 

 one that he had caught, noticed that " while 

 jumping, its tail was slightly ctirved up and was 

 not used in any way to aid in its progress." 

 Kangaroo Rats live in colonies, and exca- 



a great deal more highly specialized. The very 

 long hind legs and tail, in combination with the 

 thick-set body and soft fur characterize this 

 animal so well that it can be confused with no 

 other group of rodents. There are three genera 

 of Pocket Rats known. The genus Pcrodipus, 

 having five toes on the hind feet and including 

 some twenty-three species and subspecies ; the 

 genus Dipodomys. with hind feet having four 

 toes only but otherwise almost identical with 

 the first genus and containing some eighteen 



