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ILLINOIS NATURAL HISTORY SURVEY MANUAL 4 



Hidden terrestrial homes are those made in brush piles or 

 rock crevices, or beneath logs or other objects. Many species of 

 mammals make homes of this type. 



Skunks occasionally make homes under the flooring of old 

 buildings. Several species of rats, mice, and shrews construct 

 nests under logs, and opossums and gray foxes sometimes make 

 their homes inside hollow logs. Rabbits and long-tailed weasels 

 often make homes in brush piles. Hares hollow out pocket- in 



Fig. 10. — Form of white-tailed jackrabbit. 



the ground, called forms, fig. 10, each just deep enough to par- 

 tially conceal the animal occupying it. 



Wood rats, white-footed mice, chipmunks, gray foxes, rac- 

 coons, and bobcats frequently make nests or dens in fissures and 

 crevices of rock bluffs. 



Aquatic homes are those built in and above the water ot 

 marshes, ponds, and streams. Muskrats and beavers make 

 lodges, fig. 11, and burrows, fig. 12. If these homes are aban- 

 doned by the animals making them, they may be taken over by 

 minks. 



High Trails, Runways, and Slides. — A few Illinois mam- 

 mals make trails that are conspicuous and characteristic of the 

 animals making them. Foxes, coyotes, and woodchucks occasion- 



