195 



Sciuropterus alpinus olympicus Elliot. Olympic Plying Squirrel. 



One individual of this species was caught in a trap at La Push by one 

 John Sailto last winter while trapping for mink. This is the only one 

 seen in the region so far as the writer knows. The animal is supposed 

 to be nocturnal in its habits. 

 Hoplodontia otympica Merr. Olympic Mountain Beaver or "Gehalis 



Farmer." 



I have seen several hides of these animals which the Indians had 

 procured to sell to the fur companies ; also some captured young. But 

 I have never visited their farms. The natives tell me that these little 

 animals cut down a grass or low lily near where they make their burrows, 

 spread out the hay and dry it in the sun and then take it into their holes 

 to serve as food or bed. These beavers are much smaller than the beavers 

 of the Mogollon Mountains, the only other beavers I have seen. 



Peromyscus akeleyi Elliot. 



This long-tailed, large-eared mouse is a common pest and is to be 

 found everywhere. It rivals the domestic mouse of the Eastern States 

 in its efforts to live in the same house with the master of creation when 

 a cabin is pitched in the forest. But it is more easily caught than its 

 brother mouse; 54 were drowned in a waterpail in a house on the edge 

 of a new clearing near here in one night. In color it is rather dark with 

 an almost black dorsal area. And in size it is a little under that of the 

 domestic mouse. Its tail is as long or longer than the head and body. 

 Neotoma occidentalis Baird. Wood Rat. 



A colony of these rats was found at the mouth of the Hon River. I 

 went to stay all night in a house where a bachelor was staying. The 

 owner said the house was haunted, that the former owner was a sea cap- 

 tain, and that, wrecking his ship on the reefs at the mouth of the river 

 adjacent, his troubled spirit came back at night and thumped and knocked 

 about the floors and house walls. I said nothing but set a "figure four" 

 trap ; and the next morning it was not the sailor's spirit that was in it, 

 but instead there was a huge wood rat. 



In color this rat resembles Neotoma cinerea Columbiana very much 

 but is darker, especially along the dorsal area. It has a conspicuous 

 bushy tail. The animal has some very peculiar habits. It carries large 

 sticks of wood around, and when on a floor or anything which will pro- 

 duce a sound it thumps the wood up and down on the sounder for no other 

 purpose, it seems, than that of hearing the noise. It makes its nest of 



