478 ^ BULLETIN 56, UNITED STATES . NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



the farthest corner of the garret of the post hospital at Fort Verde. 

 At John Morris's ranch, on Clear Creek, near Fort Verde, in February, 

 1887, a pile of rubbish was burned on a large heap of rocks and stones 

 gathered from a garden and potato field. The fire created an intense 

 heat which destroyed most of the wood-rats that had selected this 

 collection of rubbish for their home. Rats had been so numerous 

 that six had been caught and killed in turning over this same heap 

 of stones a few days earlier. Three days after the fire we again 

 moved the stones and caught a rat that had its whiskers all singed off 

 on one side. We also found a surprisingly large quantity of potatoes 

 and Indian corn stored away between the stones; also several warm 

 nests, which the fire had not reached, about the size of a peck meas- 

 ure, of soft plant fibers.; but there were no holes or burrows in the 

 ground under the stones. Specimens were sometimes obtained by 

 setting fire to the nests and shooting the rats as they ran out, but 

 they were usually very reluctant to leave their habitations, and 

 many were severely singed before they would forsake their domiciles. 

 One wood-rat of Fort Verde had the habit of carrying its food to the 

 stump of a willow, 6 feet above its brush pile, when feeding at early 

 morn and was not disturbed by my passing by, though I often stopped 

 to watch it. The rat mounds along the Verde River were sometimes 

 composed entirely of cow "chips," in quantity sufficient to have filled 

 a cart. In a nest of the white-throated wood-rat taken 7 miles 

 south of Bisbee, Arizona, September 17, 1892, were found the follow- 

 ing-named substances: Seeds of amaranth (Amarantus refiexus), 

 flowers and fruit of gourd {Cucurhita digitata), pieces of agave caudex 

 in considerable amount, pieces of bark (Fouquiera and Juniperus), 

 pieces of stem of a spiny and gummy shrub, and small round stones. 

 Outwardly this nest was composed of coarse sticks and cow-dung. 



In the forest zone of red juniper, some species of wood-rats heap 

 quantities of sticks and cow-dung around the tree trunks and even 

 carry them into the lowest forks of the largest branches, where their 

 nests were quite frequently seen, especially on the road from Prescott 

 to Ash Fork, Arizona. As no specimens were obtained from this 

 region, the identity of the rat that builds these large and conspicuous 

 nests remains uncertain. I sometimes saw the nests among cacti as 

 well as around the trunks of the juniper trees, and a few rat houses 

 were placed in open spaces among scoriaceous rocks. I frequently 

 saw the rats gathering the fruit of the juniper from the trees; and 

 their houses were seen throughout the juniper zone on the high bluffs 

 bordering the south side of the Colorado River from Cataract Creek 

 to Diamond Creek Canyon. Wood-rats were noted as "very com- 

 mon," November 10, 1884, through 27 miles of Cataract Canyon, 

 and at the Havasupai Indian village. The Havasupai occupy the 

 lowest portion of Cataract Creek Canyon, where they cultivate the 



