SPINY POCKET RAT 



tivation and are no economic problem. Areas which are 

 otherwise adapted to Pocket Gophers are annually inundated 

 and water is fatal to these subterranean rodents. 



They store up food in underground storehouses and pile up 

 more than they can consume. Sometimes the ploughman 

 turns up a peck or two of small potatoes and roots of clover 

 or fruit trees in a single one of these repositories. The serious 

 damage done to orchards is due to the thoroughness with which 

 the Pocket Gopher cuts up all of the smaller roots, taking not 

 only what it can eat at the time, but removing a great mass 

 that may never be eaten. 



The Mississippi Pocket Gopher has from three to six young 

 at a birth, the usual number being four or five, and the time of 

 birth, in Illinois, has been given as April, 



Family Heteromyidae. Pocket Rats and 

 Pocket Mice 



Small rodents with external, fur-lined cheek-pockets; fore- 

 feet not equipped with greatly developed claws; hind legs more 

 or less elongated ; tail generally as long as head and body, often 

 much longer; skull with elongated rostrum and inflated 

 temporal region. 



Genus Liomys ^ 

 Dentition: Incisors, |; Canines, {}; Premolars, {; Molars, f =20. 



Texas Spiny Mouse. — Liomys irroratus texensis 



(Merriam) 



Names.— Texas Spiny Mouse; Texas Spiny Pocket Rat. 



General Characters. — A large Mouse or small Rat with fur- 

 lined cheek-pockets and pelage composed of normal hairs 

 mingled with stiff bristles or spines which are flattened and 

 grooved on anterior face; tail long, well haired; sole of hind 

 foot hairy at heel and with five tubercles; ear of medium size, 

 rounded. Nocturnal in habit, living in burrows in the 

 ground. 



Color. — Sexes colored alike, 



^ For a revision of this genus see E. A, Goldman, North American 

 Fauna, No. 34, 1911, 



297 



