MISCHIEVOUS WOOD RATS 
Another housebuilder is the wood rat, of which one sort is not 
uncommon in the woods of the Appalachian region, another on 
the Gulf coast, and others in the Rocky Mountains. 
About the size of house rats, their hairy tails, larger 
ears, thick, soft fur, and redder tinge sufficiently distinguish 
them. They live in wild places and gather masses of sticks, 
shredded bark, and other stuff into a nest often of considerable 
size and shapeliness; and Western men call them pack rats. 
Pack Rat. 
“These animals,’ Hornaday tells us, ‘‘are nocturnal, and their nest- 
building and other work is done at night. The most remarkable thing 
about them is their habit of entering houses and playing practical jokes upon 
the inmates. A pair of wood rats that I knew by reputation at Oak Lodge, 
in Florida, first carried a lot of watermelon seeds from the ground floor 
upstairs and hid them under a pillow. Then they took from the kitchen a 
tablespoonful of cucumber seeds and placed them in the pocket of a vest 
which hung upstairs on a nail. In one night they removed from a box 
eighty-five pieces of beehive fixtures, and hid them in another box, and on 
the following night they deposited in the first box about two quarts of corn 
and oats. Western frontiersmen and others who live in the land of the 
wood rat relate stories innumerable of the absurd but industrious doings 
of these strange creatures.’’ 
The bushy tailed pack rat, in particular, makes the acquaint- 
ance of every settler and is quick to adapt the conveniences of 
cabin or barn, or a roadside mail box, to his ideas of comfort. 
He is not altogether welcome, however, for he is rather too 
frequent and bold in his visits to house and pantry, stealing 
and dragging to his own stores all sorts of small articles, as well 
as a great accumulation of grain, fruit, leaves, and the like, 
little of which he really needs. But otherwise he is a harmless 
little creature, as pretty, cleanly, and lively as a squirrel. This 
species occurs from Utah to the Yukon Valley; other species 
range southward into Mexico. 
This wood rat is a large edition of that exquisite little wan- 
derer, the white-footed mouse, the many species of which 
compose the genus Peromyscus, and form a charming band, 
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