Rice-field Mouse 



The cotton rats are Southern animals, the common cotton rat 

 being an inhabitant of the South Atlantic and Gulf Coast from North 

 Carolina to Louisiana. 



Its favourite haunts are the hedges and ditches and deserted old 

 fields, banks of abandoned rice plantations and similar situations. 

 Here it burrows and constructs its underground nest. Like the field 

 mouse of the North, the cotton rat is subject to great variation 

 in colour and the slightest difference in environment produces an 

 appreciable difference in the appearance of the animals. 



Varieties of the Cotton Rat 



/. Cotton Rat. Sigmodon hispidus Say and Ord. Range and 



description as above. 

 2. Chapman's Cotton Rat. S. hispidus littoralis Chapman. Very 



much darker, nearly black above finely mixed with gray, with 



no brown tints. 



Range. East coast of Florida, Miami northward. 

 5. Bangs' Cotton Rat. S. hispidus spadicipygus Bangs. Smaller 



than either of the above, and browner than the latter. 

 Range. Extreme southern tropical Florida north to Miami and 



Tampa. 



Rice-field Mouse 



Oryzomys palustris (Harlan) 



Also called Marsh Mouse, Rice Rat. 



Length. 9.40 inches. 



Description. Similar in general external appearance to a young 

 Norway rat. Dull brownish above thickly mixed with black 

 hairs. Tail obscurely bicoloured, scantily haired, so that the 

 scales are visible. The best external characters distinguishing this 

 animal from the young of the common Norway rat are the longer 

 tail and browner colouration as well as the white fringe of hairs 

 on the lower part of the ear and the glossy brown hairs inside. 

 A young rat has narrow white front (incisor) teeth instead of the 

 orange ones and the tubercles on the molars form three rows 

 instead of two. 



Range. Southern New Jersey to the Gulf States, chiefly in the coast 

 marshes, represented in Florida by slightly different geographic 

 varieties. 



129 



