i68 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



As compared to the habits of 

 the ground squirrel, the latter 

 is a much tamer animal than 

 our prairie rat. It can often 

 be encountered in its haunts from 

 early dawn up to noon time and 

 also toward evening, when it 

 prowls around in search of grain 

 food, and stands erect on its hind • 

 legs, listening for the slightest 

 noise. The prairie rat however, 

 is somewhat larger, and of lighter 

 color, than the so-called water rat, 

 which seeks its haunts along the 

 banks of water sources and which, 

 in olden days, and yet, abounded 

 in large numbers along the San 

 Antonio river banks, the San Pedro 

 creek, and other rivulets. Along 

 the San Pedro creek in particular 

 these rats were a great plague 

 in former years to the near-by 

 inhabitants, doing much havoc 

 domestically, as well as being a 

 great unsanitary nuisance in many 

 ways. These water rats are great 

 swimmers, and they wiU cross a 

 broad stream, often diving under 

 water when pursued. At the old 

 Mitchell's Lake hunting-grounds- 

 some of these water rats were 

 quite numerously distributed along 

 the banks of the lake, and toward 

 fall time and in summer seek the 

 upset boats as their hiding place, 

 and they would prepare their 

 breeding nests in a corner of the 

 boat. At one time we niet three 

 such water rats below a boat 

 with a rat nest inside one of the 

 boa,t partitions, and they, quickly 

 escaped on lifting the boat — two 

 jumpingintothe lake and swimming 

 along vines and roots of trees 

 until a safe distance was reached 

 along the bank, where they entered 

 a hole in an old dried oak tree and 

 the third one tried to escape by 

 climbing up the branches of a 

 nearby, persimmon-tree where a 

 pair of dogs caught the rat later, 

 after a desperate fight, and killed it. 

 These rats have, a much softer fur, 

 of whitishgray color, and they are 

 somewhat smaller than the town- 

 rat and n^uch neater in appearance. 



After the above data in the Tex- 

 as Field (1911.) I had occasion re- 

 cently (June 1913,) during an out- 

 ing in the Leona hills with a friend 

 to prepare a view of a typical Tex- 

 as prairie rat nest with three rats 

 on same, inside a pile of cactus 

 leaveg, bearing fruit. Only parts 

 of the large ' ' nest ' ' is represented 

 in the photo which consisted of 

 piled-up dried cactus leaves, par- 

 cels of corn and corn leaf, which 

 the rats had gathered from an 

 adjoining cornfield. The rats are 

 of Uight gray appearance, with 

 white abdomen and feet. Hun- 

 dreds of such prairie rat nests ex- 

 ist throughout the wild brushy 

 cactus jungles, along and inside 

 the fenced-up pastures, and around 

 the large cattle tanks of western 

 Texas. The slick rodent^ build 

 these . nests to protect themselves 

 from other animals, reptiles, owls 

 and hawks, and often are such 

 piled-up wood and manure nests 

 seen inside a thick thorny brush, 

 surrounded by dense cactus jun- 

 gles, and protected all around 

 with the spinous and very thin 

 branched serpentine priekley- 

 pear cacti, which the rats gather 

 in the near or far off surroundings 

 and adjust over the hole entrances 

 in a circular form, and thereby 

 perfectly protecting them and 

 their brood from snakes and other' 

 ainimals. SSc'metiHies also the in 

 and out entrance is surrounded 

 by short brush branches, covered 

 with sharp thorns;. or the shrewd 

 rodents prepare their haunts un- 

 der the broad and piled-up cactus 

 leaf, the trails leading under these 

 cactus piles, in various directions, 

 to the main and spacious gather- 

 ing and breeding place; covered 

 also with the piled-up wood and 

 manure accumulations, and, occa- 

 sionally the entire rat family can 

 be seen inside such rat nests. 



For miles anid miles the common 

 but beautiful blossoming and fruit 

 bearing prairie cactus can be seen 



