584 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
covered with wire netting, but finally escaped and was lost. 
Of the two smaller (Perognathus mearnsi), one soon died, and 
the other is still living, in apparently good health, after con- 
finement for nearly four years. Mr. Attwater stated that 
during the time he had them they “fed readily on cane seed, 
oats, and corn, but had received no water.” Also that these 
little creatures “ when kept in confinement become very tame, 
and seem to like to be handled.” 
On arriving in New York, water was supplied them regularly 
for several weeks, but as they appeared to make no use of it, 
it was soon omitted from the bill of fare, which consisted 
exclusively of mixed bird seed. Our present captive has had 
no water offered him for nearly three years. His domicile is a 
tin box, about 14 inches by 20, and 10 inches deep, open at the 
top, but with a thick layer of earth at the bottom, which it 
forms his chief occupation to tunnel and transform, by heaping 
it up first in one corner and then in another. As he is strictly 
nocturnal in habits, little is seen of him, unless he is forced to 
come out by being disturbed in the daytime. He is readily 
susceptible to the influence of low temperature, and in winter, 
when the temperature falls to 60° F. or a little below, will 
remain for days in apparently a state of temporary hibernation. 
When an ounce or two of mixed seed is supplied him at one 
time, he either works industriously till all is hidden away in his 
underground galleries, or he diverts himself by sorting out the 
different kinds of seed and making separate deposits of each 
kind in different corners of the box, above ground. 
As no water and no fresh vegetation have been given him 
for nearly three years, it is evident that the only moisture 
required for his sustenance is derived wholly from dry bird 
seed. This seems to demonstrate that these little desert 
animals, often found living far from any sure source of water 
supply, are fitted by their organization to exist entirely without 
access to that element which to ordinary animals is so indis- 
pensable, and generally thought to be essential to at least all 
mammalian life. 
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, 
NEw YORK CITY. 
