220 BULLETIN NO. VII. 
“Mr. Slade says*: ‘The long-tailed jumping mouse inhabits 
high land or low land, forest or pasture, cultivated field or 
swamp, and appears to be equally at home in either, and num- 
erous in any situation. It possesses a momentary agility 
second to no other rodent, and a muscular strength of enor- 
mous power for so small a creature. When suddenly disturbed 
it often moves away ina direct line, the first three or four leaps 
being eight or ten feet in length; but these distances rapidly 
decline to about four feet, which are continued until it con- 
siders itself out of danger. This is not always the case for it 
frequently takes an irregular course and jumps at diverse an- 
gles for several successive leaps. * * * It feeds upon the 
buds, leaves and twigs of many kinds of plants, upon seeds, 
grain, wild berries, chestnuts, acorns, grass, and to some ex- 
tent, upon the bark of shrubs. * * * Asarule, three lit- 
ters are produced in a season, each consisting of from two to 
four young.” 
Famiry GEOMYID. 
POUCHED OR POCKET-GOPHERS. 
The pouched rats are among the most interesting and pecu- 
liar of North American mammals and from their secluded 
habits are seldom seen. They have, however, considerable 
economic importance, as their insidious and undisturbed 
forays upon gardens and orchards render them more obnox- 
ious than more open foes. From their habits unlikely to spread 
rapidly, they multiply in favorable localities to an incredible 
extent and miles of meadow land are honeycombed by their 
burrows. For the same reason they are somewhat arbitrarily 
distributed. 
From the fact that the few species are so similar, and closely 
allied geographical races so numerous, it might be inferred 
that the group, as at present found, is of a comparatively 
recent origin and that its different members are diverging from 
a common centre west of the Mississippi. To this it might be 
replied that subterranean, like subaqueous, species are subject 
to slower changes than those more directly influenced by cli- 
mate, etc. However this may be, the family is distributed over 
the western part of the United States and ranges southward 
into Mexico. The eastward range is little beyond the states 
*Merriam’s Mammals of the Adirondacks, p. 292. 
