116 CALIFORNIA MAMMALlS. 



Pacific coast reg-ion of central California from Monterey 

 County north to Lake County. Dusky-footed Brush-Rats in- 

 Jiabit the cheniisal and the underbrush in open forests and gTOves, 

 larely being found in thick forests. This form does not appear 

 to occur high in the mountains, seldom up to 3,000 feet altitude. 

 The food is principally vegetable but it is quite varjed. They 

 have the usual generic ])ropensity for carrying off small articles. 



The breeding season is March to June, perhaps later. The 

 number of young in a litter is two to four. The home is usually in 

 a "nest" or "house" of sticks, twigs, bones, or anythingf portable; 

 these piles of rubbish being two to four feet high, roughly cone 

 shaped, and are usually placed in a thicket of brush, sometimes 

 ag-ainst a tree. 



Occasionally the Brush-Rats take up their residence in barns 

 or other buildings where they do the most harm by carrying off 

 small articles, stored vegetables, dried fruit, grain or anything 

 they can carry off, even if utterly useless to them except to swell 

 their rubbisJi pile. They seldom gnaw anything-, however. They 

 leave the premises iniimcdiately on the arrival of the introduced 

 species of rat, which is a greater nuisance. 



Neotoma fuscipes monochroura Riioads. (One-color — 



tail.) 



NORTHERN DUSKY-FOOTED BRUSH-RAT. 



Similar to fitsciprs; darker above; hairs of belly white to 

 roots; skull ilatter; molar tooth row slKMicr. 



Type locality, Cirant Pass, Josephine County, Oregon. 



Pacific coast region from Mendocino County, California 

 nortli to mouth of the Columbia River, east to base of Mount 

 Shasta. 



Neotoma fuscipes marcotis Thomas. (Large— ear.) 



SOUTHER-N BRUSH RAT. 



Similar to fuscifycs; grayer, with less fulvous on the sides; 



