MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. gi 



feet, at the same time laying hold on an object thrust toward it with great 

 strength and forcing it toward a distant part of the cage. The odor of this 

 animal, even under ordinary conditions of care, is almost suffocating, and far 

 more mephitic than that of the Norway rat. When investigating an object, 

 the coarse and prominent whiskers of this rat are vibrated with astonishing 

 rapidity, forming a sort of halo about the face because of their incessant 

 motion. The function of these organs must be highly specialized in this 

 Neotoma, and undoubtedly has to do with its subterranean habits. On no 

 occasion did any of my caged rats utter a cry, save a sort of grunting squeak 

 when they yawned forcibly." Rhoads, Journ. Cincinnati Soc. Nat. Hist., voL 

 19, 1897, pp. 54 to 56. 



A nest of this species found in a small cavern near the crest of the moun- 

 tain at the sources of Cook's Run, Clinton Co., was set among loose boulders 

 at the hinder end of the cavern and was composed externally of oak leaves, 

 small branches, sticks and moss. Within this mass, which would nearly fill a 

 half bushel measure, the nest proper was composed of grass and long strip- 

 pings of inner bark of chestnut and hemlock in a spherical form, with a single 

 entrance, so far as could be discovered, the nest being much damaged in 

 extricating it. It is now on exhibition at the Academy of Natural Sciences,. 

 Philadelphia. 



Owing to its preference for uninhabited localities, this rat rarely enters into 

 economic relations to men. It sometimes makes its home in the outbuildings 

 or humble cabins of the wilderness settlers when they happen to locate near 

 the hiding places of this animal. In such instances they are both mischievous 

 and destructive, hiding away much more than they devour. Like the camp 

 rat or pack rat of the Rocky Mountains, they are, to some extent, a nuisance 

 to hunters, lumbermen and miners during their temporary sojourn in the wil- 

 derness haunts of this species, but any permanent inroads of civilization into- 

 their territory result in their speedy extermination. They appear to defy the 

 encroachments of the Old World rats, M. rattus and M. norvegicus, when 

 they come in contact. 



Description of species, For the benefit of those who are unable to look up 

 the literature to which references have been made concerning the relations of 

 N. pennsylvanica and N. magister, it may be stated that Professor Baird's 

 name of Neotoma magister for this rat was originally applied to what he con- 

 sidered a fossil species, described from some lower maxillaries taken in a cave- 

 near Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Similar remains were afterward found in other 

 caves, but it was not till 1893 that Mr. Witmer Stone announced the discovery 

 of a living Neotoma in the South Mountain, not many miles distant from the 

 Carlisle cavern which produced Baird's types. To this animal Mr. Stone gave 

 the name Neotoma pennsylvanica. Not long after, I made a comparison of 

 the remains of the extinct ( ?) rat with Mr. Stone's types, and in "A Contribu- 



