12 BULLETIN 1091, U. S, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. { bu'il^No!'!, 



rhythmically after a very short interval, suggesting the distant gal- 

 loping of a horse. After continuing in this way for a short time, the 

 animal turned quickly about, with its head in the opposite direction, 

 and began tapping. It appeared to pay little attention to the light, 

 but finally gave a sudden bound and entered one of its holes about 4 

 feet from the one in front of which it had been standing. 



Vorhies has repeatedly noted when watching for the appearance 

 of a kangaroo rat at night that this sound invariably precedes the 

 rodent's first emergence into the open, and often its appearance after 

 an alarm, though when the storage season has begun and the kangaroo 

 rat is carrying loads of grass heads or other material into its den, 

 it regularly comes out without preliminary signaling. Vorhies has 

 also observed it making the sound while on top of the mound, and 

 certainly not digging, but was unable to see how it was made. 



Voice. 



Xo data concerning any call notes or sounds other than those de- 

 scribed above are at hand, with the following exception: Price (in 

 Allen, 1895, 213), who studied the habits of the animal in the moon- 

 light, at Willcox, Ariz., says that a low chuckle was uttered at inter- 

 vals; and Vorhies has had one captive female that would repeatedly 

 utter a similar chuckle in a peevish manner when disturbed by dav. 

 and one captive male which, when teased into a state of anger and 

 excitement, would squeal much like a cornered house rat. Vorhies 

 has spent many moonlight hours observing kangaroo rats, but with- 

 out ever hearing a vocal sound uttered by free individuals. 



DAILY AND SEASONAL ACTIVITY. 



The kangaroo rat is strictly nocturnal. An observer watching 

 patienth^ by a den in the evening for the animal's first appearance 

 is not rewarded until darkness has fallen completely, and unless the 

 moon is shining the animal can hardly be seen. Were it not for the 

 white tail-brush of spectahilis and its white belly when upright on 

 the hind legs and tail, one could not as a rule see the animal at all 

 when it makes its first evening appearance. With the first streak of 

 dawn activity usually ceases completely and much more abruptly 

 than it began with the coming of darkness, but on a recent occasion 

 Vorhies observed that a kangaroo rat which did not appear until 

 near morning remained above ground until quite light, but not fully 

 daylight. On removal of the plug from the mouth of a kangaroo rat 

 burrow, one may sometimes see a fresh mass of earth and refuse shoved 

 into the opening from within. As often as not, however, even this 

 unwelcome attention does not elicit any response by day, the great 

 majority of the burrow openings of this species, as observed by the 

 authors, remaining permanently open. 



