22 Mary K. Clark, David S. Lee, John B. Funderburg, Jr. 



turbed areas, trash piles, mowed road shoulders, and agricultural areas. 

 We have no records from wooded habitats, although the species is 

 found on the sand rims of Carolina bays and probably occurs in open 

 savannas. 



Peromyscus leucopus leucopus (Rafinesque), White-footed Mouse. 

 On sand rim areas in Hoke and Bladen counties this mouse replaces 

 Peromyscus gossypinus, but it is present in extremely low densities and 

 trapped regularly only around trash piles and other places with ample 

 cover. The species was more widespread in Dare County. In recently 

 disturbed areas, it occurred sympatrically with P. gossypinus but was 

 seldom as common. We found P. leucopus in drained mature deciduous 

 bay forests with good ground cover off US 64 in Dare County, but 

 failed to find P. gossypinus there. This was the only "natural" site where 

 we collected leucopus in any vegetation stage remotely related to 

 pocosin habitats. 



Peromyscus gossypinus gossypinus (LeConte), Cotton Mouse. The 

 Cotton Mouse was the most common species collected during our 

 study. All pocosins, Carolina bays, stream-head forests, and swamps 

 with woody vegetation, and most disturbed sites, were inhabited by 

 these mice. We also collected specimens from clear cut pine-shrub 

 pocosins. 



Ochrotomys nuttalli aureolus (Audubon and Bachman), Golden 

 Mouse. Ochrotomys was common in mature forests in all areas studied, 

 and occurred sympatrically with Peromyscus gossypinus. We found the 

 Golden Mouse to be common in flooded Pond Pine-cane pocosins in 

 Dare County, and in evergreen bay and stream-head forests. It was 

 most common in ecotonal areas where light permitted vines (particu- 

 larly Smilax) to flourish, and absent from savannas, sand rims, and 

 unforested habitats. 



Sigmodon hispidus komareki (Gardner), Cotton Rat. The Cotton Rat 

 was most commonly associated with dry, early successional stages, Wire 

 Grass savannas, and various disturbed communities, and was uncom- 

 mon on sand rims dominated by Wire Grass. At Bay Tree Lake we found 

 a few Sigmodon in the detritus line along the eastern shore of the lake. 

 Interestingly, these rats were not at all common on the Dare County 

 mainland, and those that we did find were not in natural communities. 

 At one Dare County site, where the plant community in a roadside 

 swale matured from Juncus to grasses and shrubs over a 2-year period, 

 Sigmodon replaced Microtus. The Cotton Rat apparently is absent 

 from the Dismal Swamp (Handley 1979), although we have records 

 from the southern and western edges of the swamp. 



