1919] Dixon: Bushy-tailed Wood Rats of California 67 



The only instance of which we have knowledge where these rats 

 have congregated and become abundant is in a report from one of the 

 watchmen of the snowsheds stationed at Signal Mountain near Cisco, 

 Placer County. This man stated that during the winter of 1908 

 bushy-tailed wood rats became very abundant in and about the cabins 

 of the watchmen, so much so that it was very difficult for the men to 

 keep food and supplies from being eaten up or carried off by the rats 

 (J. Grinnell, MS). 



ECONOMIC STATUS 



Bushy-tailed wood rats are of little or no economic importance in 

 California. They rarely interfere with the works of man, as they are 

 mostly dwellers in rough mountainous country, far from human 

 habitations. The collecting activities of "trade" or "pack" rats in 

 this state are almost always traceable to the round-tailed and not to 

 the bushj^-tailed wood rat. Bushy-tails do, however, at times occupy 

 temporarily deserted or isolated cabins. Kellogg (1916, p. 362) 

 states in this regard: "At the latter place [Kangaroo Creek, near 

 Scott River, Siskiyou County], however, we again found them [bushy- 

 tails] inhabiting an old cabin and this time in company with their 

 round-tailed kin." A. M. Alexander (MS) states that three bushy- 

 tailed wood rats were caught in a cabin on the North Fork of Coffee 

 Creek, Trinity County, on July 4, 1911; while Taylor (MS) caught a 

 bushy-tailed wood rat in a cabin two miles south of South Yolla Bolly 

 Mountain, Tehama County, on August 1, 1913. 



The chance of the bushy-tailed wood rat acting as a disseminator 

 of disease in California is exceedingly small. To the author's knowl- 

 edge, no house or "plague-carrying" rats (genus Rattus) have ever 

 been taken in California within the precise territory occupied by the 

 bushy-tailed wood rat. Birdseye (1912, pp. 5, 31) states that in 

 western Montana bushy-tailed wood rats are often found infested 

 with the spotted fever tick {Dermacentor venustus). This fever may 

 be communicated from wild animals to human beings through the bite 

 of this tick, so that in Montana bushy-tailed wood rats are of consider- 

 able importance. Fortunately, in California, conditions such as these 

 seemingly do not exist. 



