THE MAMMALS OF NEW JERSEY. 73 



This rat lives in caves, crevices, and rock piles. They feed on 

 various nuts and other vegetable matter and gnaw at bones that 

 remain from the feasts of such carnivorous animals as may share 

 their rocky retreats. They sometimes build large bulky nests, 

 formed by heaping up leaves, grass and various vegetable fibres. 



This rat can always be told from the domestic or Norway rat 

 by the hairiness of the tail, softer fur and much larger ears, while 

 the molar teeth are flat-topped, not raised into "tubercles." The 

 wood rat, too, lacks the disagreeable odor of the other species, 

 and is altogether a cleaner, brighter-colored animal. 



Neotoma magister Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat, Sci. Phila., 1897, 

 p. 28. — Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1894, p. 219. 



Neotoma pennsylvanica Rhoads, Mam. Pa. and N. J., 1903, 

 p. 85. 



Genus Oryzomys Baird. 



Ricefield Mice. 

 Oryzomys palustris (Harlan). 



Ricefield Mouse. 



Plate 27. 



Length 9.40 inches. In general appearance very much like a 

 young Norway rat. Dull brown, thickly mixed with black hairs. 

 Tail obscurely bicolored, scantily haired. Best distinguished 

 from the young Norway rat by the larger tail, browner color, and 

 the white fringe of hairs on the lower part of the ear and glossy 

 brown hairs inside. It also has orange front teeth which are 

 white in the young rat and the tubercles on the molar teeth form 

 two rows instead of three. 



This mouse, common through the south, was supposed to have 

 originally come from New Jersey, Dr. Harlan stating that his 

 type specimen came from Salem. All efforts on the part of Mr. 

 Rhoads, myself and others, however, failed to rediscover it and 

 the impression was gaining ground that there was some error re- 

 garding the locality of Dr. Harlan's specimen, when Mr. Henry 



