1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 227 



Breeding habits. The females have an unusual arrangement of 

 mammas, 2 pairs of pectoral and 1 pair of anterior abdominal, all 

 conspicuously marked by large round spots of dark brown. Even 

 the nipples of the males are sometimes indicated by small brown 

 spots in the fur. Scheffer gives the number of young as generally 

 2 or 3, scantily haired and blind at birth, but there are other reports 

 of 5 or 6. He thinks that but one litter is raised in a year and says 

 the young are born about the middle of April in well-sheltered 

 nests in the burrows under logs, stumps, or upturned roots of trees. 



Food habits. ApUdontias are purely vegetarian with a wide 

 range of food plants. One brought into camp alive would eat almost 

 any plants offered him. A little lily (probably Vagnera sessilifolia) 

 seemed to be its favorite, but vetch, lupine, salal, and ferns were 

 eagerly eaten. Willows, alders, maples, thimbleberry, salmonberry, 

 dewberry, fire weed, valerian, and in fact most of the shrubs and 

 plants available are cut and eaten on the spot or carried into the bur- 

 rows for future use. The habit of leaving bunches of cut plants 

 around the mouths of the burrows, on logs or stones to dry, has given 

 the animals credit for making hay; but green as well as dry plants 

 are carried into the burrows, and some of the dried plants are left 

 outside until they become well bleached. The haymaking is not 

 thorough or systematic but is evidently a part of the preparation for 

 winter for either food or nest material. Scheffer reports bark eaten 

 from the roots and bases of tree trunks in winter, and many lower 

 branches of conifers cut for food. 



Economic status. Generally these are harmless little animals of 

 the forest, thickets, and waste places, rarely noticed unless a trail 

 goes through one of their colonies or a place is cleared where their 

 burrows are already located. While these occurrences are rare they 

 usually occasion some annoyance and in case of fields a possible 

 injury of crops. The animals quickly disappear, however, before 

 clearings and cultivation of the soil and are of no permanent con- 

 sequence to agriculture. Locally it may be necessary to trap or 

 poison them at the edges of fields or where they burrow across trails, 

 but they are easily trapped and readily poisoned. 



They are said to be used as food by the Indians, but one cooked 

 in the writer's camp was strong, tough, and dark colored. No one 

 seemed to enjoy it, and even the dog would not eat the meat. 



Apparently they are preyed upon by many of the fur-bearing 

 carnivores and thus help to convert some of the abundant vege- 

 tation of the mountain slopes into the valuable and varied fur crop 

 of the State. 



Among the Northwest coast Indians the skins of these little ani- 

 mals seem to have been in general use for fur robes and blankets in 

 the days of Lewis and Clark, in 1805, and of Douglas, in 1827, and for 

 clothing, according to Suckley, in 1860. The fur is short, but soft 

 and when prime fairly dense and of an attractive neutral brown. 

 The skins are strong and light and would seem well suited for lin- 

 ings or for light outer garments. Camp says the skins of the Cali- 

 fornia species bring only 8 or 10 cents in the fur market, and Jewett 

 reports sales of Oregon skins at 10, 15, and 20 cents each. If taken 

 when fully prime these skins should have a much greater value. 



