MAMMALIA, 137 
‘44. 1. Neoroma Drummonpn. (Rich.) Rocky-Mountain Neotoma. 
Genus. Neotoma. Say. 
Rat of the Rocky Mountains. Lewis and Crank, vol. iii. p. 41. 
Myoxus Drummondii, Ricuarpson, Zool. Journ., No. 12, March, 1828, p. 517. 
N. (Drummondii) brunescenti-cervina subter alba, caudé floccosa corpus longitudine excedenti. 
Rocky-Mountain Neotoma, yellowish-brown above, white beneath, tail more bushy towards the extremity, 
longer than the body. 
PLATE vit. 
This animal inhabits the Rocky Mountains, in latitude 57°, and though specimens 
of it have from time to time reached England, but little is known of its habits. 
Mr. Drummond informs me that it makes its nest in the crevices of high rocks, 
and seldom’ appears in the day-time, but its place of abode may be detected by its 
excrement, which has the colour and consistence of tar, and is always deposited in 
one place. Its food most probably consists of herbage of various kinds, and of 
small branches of pine trees, because there is generally a considerable store of 
these substances laid up in the vicinity of its residence. It is very destructive. 
In the course of a single night, the fur traders who have encamped in a place 
frequented by these animals have sustained much loss, by their packs of furs 
being gnawed, their blankets cut in pieces, and many small articles carried entirely 
away. Mr. Drummond placed a pair of stout English shoes on the shelf of a 
rock, and, as he thought, in perfect security, but on his return, after an absence 
of a few days, he found them gnawed into fragments as fine as saw-dust. When 
I published a short notice of this animal, in the Zoological Journal, I made use of 
the grateful privilege of a first describer, in distinguishing it by the name of my 
fellow-traveller, whose zeal for the promotion of every branch of natural history 
was unbounded. Not having had at that time an opportunity of examining the 
molar teeth, I was induced to refer it to the genus Mycxus, on account of its 
general appearance; but having lately seen the scull of an individual obtained on 
the Rocky Mountains by Mr. David Douglas, I have been enabled to ascertain 
that it belongs to the genus Neotoma, founded by Mr. Say. It has a great 
resemblance, particularly about the feet, to his figure of the Florida-rat, published 
in the Philadelphia Journal of Science, but differs from that species in having a 
ii 
