66 University of California Puhlioations in Zoology [Vol. 21 



up and taken to the nest. It is possible that these cured elder stalks 

 correspond to the "hay" which the cony makes during- the summer 

 to provide against the lean days of winter. 



Near Jackass Spring, 6200 feet, in the Panamint Mountains, on 

 October 8, 1917, freshly cut branches of a yellow-flowered composite 

 {Ericameria cimeata spathulata) which grew in the crevices among 

 the granite boulders were found in the passageways among the rocks 

 and about old Teononia "houses." 



At Jackson Lake, Siskiyou Countj^ June 23, 1911, an example 

 of Neotatna cinerea occidentalis was caught in a trap near a few 

 droppings and freshly cut fir twigs. At this locality another example 

 was caught in a meat-baited steel trap (L. Kellogg, MS). 



In Lyell Caiion, Yosemite National Park, on July 24, 1915, the 

 atlas and leg bone of some animal the size of a deer was found among 

 the sticks of a Temiotna house. These bones may have been carried in 

 just as building material or they may have originally had some food 

 value. 



At the very crest of Mount Lyell, 13,090 feet, on July 18, 1910, a 

 bushy-tailed wood rat came out from the rocks and foraged about 

 for crumbs of hard-tack which had been dropped by the visitors (T. I. 

 Storer, MS). This occurred in the middle of the afternoon and is 

 the only record we have of voluntary daylight excursions on the part 

 of this rodent. This individual made several hurried sorties from 

 the sheltering rockpile after the hard-tack. From within its shelter 

 .the rat could be distinctly heard crunching the bits of hard-tack. At 

 one time this rat paused in his search for food, sat up on his haunches 

 and gazed at the human intruders twelve feet distant. Apparently 

 the main food supply- of this individual at this season consisted of 

 scraps left b}^ tourists who ate lunches on the summit. 



* POPULATION 



The local distribution of wood rats of the bushy-tailed category is 

 often irregular. Certain rock slides maj^ be found to be occupied 

 by wood rats, while near-by slides, apparently just as well adapted to 

 their needs, seem altogether neglected by the animals. There is rarely 

 more than one family of five or six individuals in one rock slide 

 covering from two to five acres. If we consider the entire area 

 included in the range of this animal there is probably not over one 

 rat to each twent}^ acres. 



