336 CANADA POUCHED RAT. 



Steps from the hole and cuts the grass, with which he fills his cheek- 

 pouches, and then retires into his burrow to eat it undisturbed. 



You may see the Pseudostoma now and then sitting on its rump and 

 basking in the rays of the sun, on which occasions it may easily be shot 

 if you are prompt, but if missed it disappears at once, is seen no more, 

 and will even dig a burrow to a considerable distance, in order to get out 

 of the ground at some other place where it may not be observed. 



This species may be caught in steel-traps, or common box-traps, with 

 which we procured two of them. When caught in a steel-trap, they fre- 

 quently lacerate the leg by which they are held, which is generally the 

 hind one, by their struggles to get free. They are now and then turned 

 up by the plough, and we have known one caught in this manner. They 

 sometimes destroy the roots of young fruit-trees to the number of one or 

 two hundred in the course of a few days and nights ; and they will cut 

 those of full grown trees of the most valuable kinds, such as the apple, 

 pear, peach and plum. This species is found to vary in size very 

 greatly on comparing different individuals, and they also vary in their 

 colour according to age, although we found no difference caused by sex. 



The commonly received opinion is, that these rats fill their pouches 

 with the earth from their burrows, and empty them at the entrance. 

 This is, however, quite an erroneous idea. Of about a dozen, which were 

 shot dead in the very act of rising out of their mounds and burrows, none 

 had any earth in their sacs ; but the fore-feet, teeth, nose, and the ante- 

 rior and upper portion of their heads, were found covered with adherent 

 earth. On the contrary, most of them had their pouches filled with either 

 blades of grass or roots of different trees ; and we think of these pouches, 

 that their being hairy within, rather corroborates the idea that they are 

 only used to convey food to their burrows. This species appears to raise 

 up the earth very much in the manner of the common shrew-mole. 



When running, the tails of these animals drag on the ground, and they 

 hobble along at times with their long front claws bent underneath their 

 feet as it were, backwards, and never by leaps. They can travel almost 

 as fast backwards as forwards. When turned on their backs they have 

 great difficulty in regaining their natui-al position, and kick about in the 

 air for a minute or two with their legs and claws extended, before they 

 can turn over. They can bite severely ; as their incisors by their size 

 and sharpness plainly indicate ; and they do not hesitate to attack their 

 enemies or assailants with open mouth, squealing when in a rage like the 

 common Norway or wharf rat, (3Ius decumanus.) When they fight 

 ^mong themselves they make great use of their snouts, somewhat in the 



