504 



RErORT OF STATE GEOLOGIST. 



ern South America, where it is represented by some half a dozen 

 species. Its inclusion in the Indiana fauna is made necessary by 

 reason of its having been twice introduced into the State. 



?NYCTOMYS DECOLORUS (True). 

 "BED EAT." 



Sitomys (Rhipidomys) decoloriis True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mu- 

 seum, Vol. 16, p. 689, 1894. 



Description. — Color rich reddish brown above; white on the 

 underparts; tail very similar to the back in color both above and 

 below ; a dark ring around the eye ; skull with strong supraorbital 

 ridges. 



I have no specimen before me as I write and this description is 

 drawn from some hasty notes taken on a specimen in the State 

 Musem at Indianapolis, supplemented by a reference to Dr. True's 

 original description of the species decoloriis. This specimen was 

 captured in Indianapolis, May 1, 1903. Later in the same year an 

 example of the same species was taken in Bluffton, Indiana, and 

 sent to the National Museum at Washington, where it is retained 

 in the collections as No. 122627. Concerning its identity Dr. M. W. 

 Lyon, Jr., wrote me as follows: "The red rat belongs to the genus 

 Nyctomys and may possibly represent the species decoloriis True. 

 * * * I am not at all sure. There are very few specimens of the 

 genus in Washington, and none of them are authoritatively named 

 excepting the type of decoloriis which is a young thing and not 

 much good, and a specimen of sumichrasti." 



The species sumichrasti inhabits the state of Vera Cruz, Mexico, 

 while decolorus is from Honduras. How these rats reached Indiana 

 is a mystery. The one from Bluffton was caught in a grocery store 

 and it seems probable that both may have reached here in a ship- 

 ment of tropical fruit or other merchandise. 



The fact that two of these animals should reach the State alive 

 seems to indicate that some care is necessary to prevent the intro- 

 duction of species of rats and mice whicli may l)ecome established 

 and become a pest. This si:>ecies is tropical and is not likely to be 

 introduced in numbers sufficiently largi^ to p(U"mit acclimatization. 

 However, our experience with th(^ liouse mouse, house rat, Englisli 

 sparrow and a horde of insect pests is such that we can not afford 

 to take any chances, and strange rodents should be killed off with 

 even greater can^ than our native kinds. Species of a?iimals trans- 



