CHAPTER VI 



WOOD-EATS, PACK-EATS, COTTON- 

 EATS, ETC. 



IN the South and West are to be found a 

 great number of species of rodents called wood- 

 rats (Neotoma) which are pretty, interesting 

 and amusing rather than harmful in their mag- 

 pie-like mischief. They are rat-like in form, 

 with long, scantily-haired tails, but squirrel-like 

 in agility and climbing power; and more in- 

 clined to go abroad in the dusk of evening and 

 morning than during the brighter hours of the 

 day. 



Florida and Texas species. One species is 

 well known in wooded country from New Jersey 

 southward, and is 13 inches long, including a 

 5-inch tail, brownish gray, the sides tawny, the 

 belly and feet all white. Bartram described 

 the animal and its home, as he met with them 

 in Florida almost 150 years ago. 



"They are singular," he says, "with respect to 

 their ingenuity and great labor in the construction 

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