-576 HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



domys. It was a most attractive creature, almost as large as a small rat, of 

 beautiful fawn color, with white beneath, a long tufted tail with a white 

 stripe on the side, large expressive eyes, and long powerful legs for leaping. 

 It looked like a miniature kangaroo, and my captive had a pouch, — two, in 

 fact, one each side of the jaw. The little creature had been feeding and its 

 pouches were filled with very small seeds which it was storing up to eat at 

 leisure. It hopped along nearly like a kangaroo, sitting up when alarmed, 

 then leaping a foot or more, using its short fore feet to aid in the motion, 

 in its general appearance carrying out its popular name of kangaroo rat. ^ 

 The form common about Pasadena is Dipodomys PhilHpsi. 



Gopher. — Few in California but are familiar with the gopher {^eomys) 

 and have not watched with amazement gallons of valuable water disappear 

 in the holes of these tyrants of the garden. The gopher tunnels in every 

 direction, and the entire upper surface of the valley, especially the cultiva- 

 ted portion, is permeated with a maze of their making. Like the kangaroo 

 rat, they have two pouches, one on each side of the mouth, and so large 

 that two fingers can be pressed into them. The earth is pushed up out of 

 the hole by the feet and breast of the animal, but the chief use of the pouch 

 is to store up food, which is eaten at leisure in the burrow. The gopher is 

 very sly and cunning, and rarely ventures out if any one is near. The nest 

 of the gopher is in a room near the surface, and the young, queer little 

 fellows, are often throv/n out by the plow. The long burrows are made in 

 excursions for choice roots, and perhaps for social and various purposes. 

 [This creature is also called " pouched rat." — Edr.] 



Tree Rat. — The stroller in the canyons often sees bunches of leaves 

 and twigs, bound together so tightly that it is sometimes difficult to tear 

 them apart. Frequently they are in trees, again are in bushes near the 

 ground. [Two different species. (?)] Coming suddenly upon one, you may 

 see a little creature darting away, resembling a rat. It is possibly the dusky- 

 footed wood rat {^Neotoma fuscipes), and the bunch of leaves is its nest, 

 which, being above the surface of the ground, gives rise to the saying that 

 California rats live in trees. One opened by me in a branch of the Arroyo 

 Seco, after considerable labor, showed much method in its structure. The 

 nest was at least three feet high, resting between the limbs of a tree, touch- 

 ing the ground ; the upper twelve inches was made up of leaves and refuse 

 packed together so closely that it formed a perfectly water-tight roof ; then 

 came a large room filled with at least an armful of plant fiber and other soft 

 material, all of the consistence of cotton, as dry and warm as could be de- 

 sired. This was the nest, the sleeping room and the nursery en the young. 

 This rested on a flooring of leaves, and beneath was a store-room containing 

 at least two quarts of large acorns, among which I noticed several corn cobs, 

 evidently taken from a house .some distance away. The entire nest was per- 

 meated by four or five passages, there being at least three exterior doors, 

 while a lower or cellar door led into a burrow in the ground, which, in turn, 

 had another opening fifteen feet away. This nest, I think, was unusual, as 

 many more opened failed to show the .system and good arrangement dis- 



*Van Dyke calls this animal the '•jumping mouse or jerboa, often called kangaroo mouse." He 

 al'o mentions four other varieties of mice found here, to wit : A long-tailed ground mouse, a short- 

 tailed ground mouse, a tree mouse, and a desert mouse, somewhat squirrel-like in appearance and mo- 

 tion, as it runs with great speed and occasional high jumps ; it lives mostly in clumps or patches of 

 the prickly pear cactus. These five varieties of mice he classifies entirely separate from the rats. 



