272 Universify of California Puhlicaf ions in Zoologij. L"^^ol. 7 



Habits. — The first evidence we had of the presence of Pcro- 

 dipus was a tail and the hind foot which had been left on the 

 desert by some predaceous animal. At Amos we dug out a 

 kangaroo rat's nest. Whether it was that of a Dipodoniijs or 

 Perodipus was not determined; but in all probability the two are 

 quite similar in burrowing habits. Since Perodipus was the 

 common genus, however, the chances favor its belonging to P. m. 

 levipes. The rat was frightened from the burrow by our digging. 

 The hole was in soft soil, the nest itself being located about a foot 

 in depth and two feet from the entrance in an enlarged chamber 

 (see figure 2). It was built of green and dry grass and con- 

 tained a quantity of green plant seed. The green grass and the 

 seeds were probably stored for food. A Perodipus caught June 5 

 had several pieces of mouse-excrement in its cheek pouches. 

 Kangaroo rats were caught on the open desert, several of them 

 in front of burrows, presumably their own. They were evidently 

 not common anywhere, though more numerous on the plains 

 than along the foothills of the Pine Forest ]\Iountains. 



Dipodomys merriami nevadensis C. H. ]Merriam. 

 Nevada Kangaroo Rat. 



Status. — Dr. C. Hart ]\Ierriam has kindly examined our single 

 specimen of Dipodomys (an adult female, no. 7880, taken at 

 Quinn River Crossing on IMay 30, 1909), and identifies it as 

 belonging to this species. 



There are however some discrepancies apparent when tliis 

 specimen is compared with the original description of nevadensis 

 (C. H. Merriam, 1894b, p. 111). These differences might show 

 our specimen to be the extreme of a hypothetical series of n( vad- 

 ensis, incidentally approaching Dipodomys in. siniiolus. This 

 seems more probable than that the differences represent an innate 

 departure from the mean of nevadensis. The specimen is a 

 female, while probably some of the specimens, at least, upon 

 which Dr. Merriam based his (lescrij)fion, are males. It meas- 

 ures: total length, 215; tail vertebrae, 127; and hind foot, 35. 

 The measurements of the type specimen of nevaelensis are: total 

 length, 240; tail vertebrae, 140; and hind foot, 39. Five adults 



