The Allegheny Cave Rat at West Point, N. Y/ 



William T. Davis 



A number of years ago Col. Wirt Robinson, observing that 

 some of the plants on the rocky slope of Crow's Nest Mountain 

 facing the Hudson River, had been gnawed off, commenced to 

 look about for the animal that had been so industrious. It was 

 not long before some of the plants were found stored beneath the 

 shelter of the great rocks loosely piled at the base of the moun- 

 tain, and a few traps set at these places secured several of the 

 colony of cave rats living on the side of Crow's Nest. 



On the 26th of October, 1912, Col. Robinson placed twenty- 

 three traps, baited with bread, among the rocks where Neotoma 

 pennsyhanica Stone was known to occur, and the next day he 

 kindly took Mr. Charles W. Leng and me to the place to see what 

 success he had in securing a few specimens for our museum. While 

 Mr. Leng sifted for beetles I went after the traps into mountain 

 crevices and deep holes among the rocks, under the direction of 

 the Colonel. The first ten traps had not secured a Neotoma, but 

 with the remaining thirteen we had better fortune, and found 

 three, two females and a male — the latter much larger than the 

 females. We also secured one white-footed mouse and one red- 

 backed mouse. 



The rats at the time of our visit had collected a great many 

 tops of Baptisia tinctoria, gnawing off the plants about a foot 

 from the ground, or as high up as they could reach. When the 

 plant stood near a rock it was sometimes cut off higher up, doubt- 

 less as the rat stood on the rock. Later we found a great store of 

 this material, together with a dried fungus, some fern fronds, aster 

 tops and many small sticks of woody plants, that had been freshly 

 cut. This " hay " did not seem to be intended for a bed, but was 

 stowed away loosely among the rocks in an exposed place, open on 

 both sides, where one great rock resting on some others came to 



^ Presented at the meeting of the Section of Biology, December 11, 1912. 



100 



