CHAPTER VI 
WOOD-RATS, PACK-RATS, COTTON. 
RATS, ETC. 
In the South and West are to be found a 
great number of species of rodents called wood- 
rats (Neotoma) which are pretty, interesting 
and amusing rather than harmful in their mag- 
pie-like mischief. They are rat-like in form, 
with long, scantily-haired tails, but squirrel-like 
in agility and climbing power; and more in- 
clined to go abroad in the dusk of evening and 
morning than during the brighter hours of the 
day. 
Florida and Texas species.- One species is 
well known in wooded country from New Jersey 
southward, and is 13 inches long, including a 
5-inch tail, brownish gray, the sides tawny, the 
belly and feet all white. Bartram described 
the animal and its home, as he met with them 
in Florida almost 150 years ago. 
‘‘They are singular,’’ he says, ‘‘with respect to 
their ingenuity and great labor in the construction 
98 
