Plains Pocket Mouse; Ord's Kangaroo Rat 



Plains Pocket Mouse 



Perognathus flavescens (Merriam) 



Length. 5 inches. 



Description. External cheek pouches lined with hair opening on either 

 side of the mouth; hair harsh; grayish buff above mixed with dusky 

 white below, sides, ring around eye and spot behind the eye clear 

 buff, feet and legs white. (Illustration facing p. 121.) 



Range. Plains from South Dakota to northern Texas and west to the 

 base of the Rocky Mountains. Numerous other species occur 

 throughout the sandy arid regions of the West from British Colum- 

 bia to Mexico and California. 



Very little is known of the life history of the pocket mice, mainly 

 because they are strictly nocturnal in habits and pass the daytime in 

 their burrows in the sandy ground with the openings generally stopped 

 with earth. Like the gophers they carry their food in their curious 

 cheek pouches and store it away in their subterranean granaries. 



Ord's Kangaroo Rat 



Perodipus ordi (Woodhouse) 



Length. 9.60 inches. 



Description. Ochraceous buff above, blackish on the rump. Sides of 

 nose, spot behind each ear and band across the thighs white, under 

 parts white; tail dusky down the middle, above and below, show- 

 ing white bases to hairs on either side. (Illustration facing p. 121.) 



Range. Western Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Many other 

 species occur through the arid regions of the West. 



This is another nocturnal inhabitant of the sandy plains of 

 the Southwest. It makes an underground nest with numerous 

 communicating passageways, the whole forming a low hillock which 

 easily caves in and which horses and mules familiar with the 

 country have learned to carefully avoid. 



Ernest Seton-Thompson gives an interesting account of a nest 

 of this little animal which he investigated. It was situated under 

 the sheltering spines of a bunch of Spanish bayonets and thistles, 

 which guarded effectually from would-be pursuers the nine open- 



