THEVOICEOFTHEDESERT 1QQ 



pearance is mouselike enough. He has thick, silky brown 

 hair and a pointed bewhiskered nose. His crowning glory 

 — worn at the opposite end from that on which crowning 

 glories are usually worn — is a handsome tail half again as 

 long as all the rest of his body and with a furry banner at 

 the end, much like that on the tail of a Hon. Moreover, 

 this tail turns out to be very useful as well as ornamental. 



Actually there are some sixteen different species of 

 kangaroo rats resident in the arid parts of the West and 

 one of them, also found about Tucson, goes in for a fine 

 decorative touch by choosing to have his banner a con- 

 trasting white. Mine, whose scientific name is Dipodomys 

 merriami, is tlie smallest of the tribe and consists of about 

 four inches of body with six or more of tail. I choose him 

 rather than his larger cousin because he happens to be the 

 one whose independence of any external water supply has 

 been tested and vouched for by relentless laboratory ex- 

 perimenters. 



Dipo's large black eyes are a clear enough indication 

 that his habit is nocturnal, and the casual traveler ordi- 

 narily sees him only as some sort of small rodent hurrying 

 across the road in the headlights of an .automobile. In 

 nature he makes extensive burrows entered through many 

 surface holes and usually under a considerable mound of 

 earth, perhaps fifteen feet in circumference and often so 

 thoroughly tunneled just below the surface that it will 

 collapse if one attempts to walk across it. 



Other desert rodents, ground squirrels and gophers, 

 make similar holes, but the Dipo's residence is usually 

 recognizable by the fact that the mound is elevated well 

 above the surrounding surface of the ground. Apparently, 

 however, he does not always have this well-constructed 



