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LOGISt AND MAMMALOGIST. 4: 
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~ Bottineau (on western edge’ of Turtle Mountain), August, 1887; Did not secure it, 
_ September, 1887: Common on the hills and prairies; not found in the brush; easily 
~ caught in any kind of trap baited with cheese or cake. They live in holes which 
' they dig or steal; I think they generally oecupy those of the Yellow Arvicola (Arvi- 
hae rey ° et, Hits ; et * 7 ‘i - Me, 
rly in the evening, and I shot one while running through the weeds about 8 o’clock 
Dakota,—Devil’s Lake, Ramsey ‘County, August, 1887: Found one dead on aroad, 
but a farmer described it accurately and said he had found a few. Fort Buford, . 
cola pailidus), for wherever I have set traps ata collection of Arvicolas’ holes Thave © 
caught some Onychomys, but evidently they dig holes for themselves, for I have 
Xi -eaught them at holes where fresh dirt was thrown out every night. I suppose this | 
__ species does not hibernate, for none of its near relatives do, though one that [caught 
-! was very fat. The fat, however, was not so much under the skin as it is in most, 
if not all, hibernating mammals. One which I kept in confinement was not full 
mays Ste when caught. From the first it did not show the least fear. It took food 
- from my fingers when first offered, and never attempted to bite. If not disturbed 
_ or very hungry it sleeps all day, and when waked up gapes, stretches, and blinks 
_ sometime before he gets fully awake, but is then lively for a time, though he does 
~ not seem to like the light, and if it is bright keeps winking. In the evening he be- 
comes lively and tries to get out, jumping and scratching at the sides of his cage, 
and biting the wires of the front; but he never gnaws, and though he has been a 
week in a thin cigar box there is not a tooth-mark in it. Sometimes he becomes 
_ erazy in his efforts to get out nights, and jumps about with all his might; but usually, 
~ unless hungry, he is quiet and intelligent. He will come to the front of his cage at 
once if the wires are rattled or scratched and look for food. lf a fly gets inside 
he is pretty sure to see it, and seldom fails to catch it. He will not eat raw meat, 
_ but the way he takes hold of grasshoppers and flies shows that they are not new to 
him. He ate 16 crickets, 11 grasshoppers, 1 spider, a black bug, and a big fly one 
forenoon. When very hungry he will eat weed seed or the leaves and stems of 
knot-grass and pigweed, but he has not been hungry enough for this many times 
_since I have had him. He will also eat a little cheese and fried cake when hungry, 
‘but not much, and evidently does not relish it. His favorite food is crickets; he 
will not eat anything else while there is a cricket in his box. Next to crickets he 
will take grasshoppers or flies, but does not seem to care so much for beetles, though 
he will eat any kind that I have yet offered him, principally a small black beetle 
‘that lives under sticks and stones; he also cats lady-bugs. ‘I have found only one 
potato bug since I have had him, and he seemed to relish that, as he ate it a 1 but 
the wings, shell, and legs. He always begins at the head of an insect, holding it 
, in his hands while he eats. A grasshopper will just nicely sit on its tail while he 
‘eats its head, with a hand on each shoulder; but the hopper is bound to kick, and 
e 
if a large one, makes him much trouble, sometimes tipping him over; but he never. 
, _ lets go or stops eating until the head is off; then he eats his way to the tail. The 
wings and legs fall off as he eats the body out of them, and if he has plenty to eat 
they are left; but if hungry, and the supply is short, he will eat the legs afterward. 
He eats spiders, soft bugs, and dragon flies. He killed and ate a small frog when 
hungry, but would not touch one after eating all the hoppers he wanted. Next to 
_.. insects he will take raw meat, fat or lean. He is very fond of brains. The only in- 
_ sects offered him which he would not eat were ants, and a few in his box make 
~. him almost crazy. Ifa dozen grasshoppers or crickets are put in his box alive he 
will kill them all by biting off their heads before he eats any. The same day that f 
caught him I dropped a dead White-footed Mouse (Hesperomys leucopus) into his 
box. He pounced upon it like a cat, caught it by the side of the head near the ear, 
and began biting with all the ferocity of acoon,dog. I could hear the bones crack, 
and when he let go and seemed satisfied that it was dead I took it out and found quite — 
- ahole broken through the skull just below the petrous bone. His teeth must have 
penetrated far into the brain. I put it back and Onychomys began at once to gnaw 
. through and pull off strips of fiesh from the neck, shoulders, and skull, but did not 
_ getatthe brain. He ate both of its eyes. The savage disposition shown in his man- 
a. ner of attack, and his promptness to seize it, would indicate a habit of killing mice. 
September 22.—At 7.43 a. m. I gave him 12 crickets and 1 spider. He had eaten 
them allin seven minutes. At8a.m. he ate 3 grasshoppers: at 10,1 big fly; at 10.15, 
4 grasshoppers and 4 crickets, and at 11.45, 4 grasshoppers and a black bug; total, 
30 large insects in four hours. Did not have time to catch any more for him. Septem- 
_ ber 25.—At 6.45 a. m. he ate 1 fly and 2 black beetles: at 7.30, 1 grasshopper and 18 
crickets; at 10, 2 grasshoppersvand 2 flies; at 12 m.,3 flies, 2 hoppers, and 7 crickets; 
at 1.30 p. m., 6 big blue flies; at 2, 3 big flies; at 2.30, 3 grasshoppers: and at 6,3 
1 crickets; total, 2 beetles, 8 grasshoppers, 15 flies, and 28 crickets, or in all, 53 large 
_. insects.in less than twelve hours. He would haye eaten more if he had had them. 
Nahe 
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