Mountain Rat 
117 
FIG. 39. MOUNTAIN RAT, Neotoma c. orolestes 
Skull showing dentition x if 
Habits. — ^This species is the somewhat notorious Mountain 
Rat, or Pack Rat, as it is often called. This latter name 
comes from its habit of packing or carrying off any article 
which it can get hold of. In some localities it is also called 
"Trade Rat," because it is said that it always leaves some- 
thing in exchange for what it carries away. It builds 
nests much as the other species do, amongst rocks, in hollow 
trees, and various other situations. I have found them 
in abandoned mine tunnels, about the timbers, and in drifts. 
I took one in an abandoned tunnel near Querida, Custer 
County, at a point about 225 feet in from the entrance; 
it had a nest there, and there was also another nest in a drift 
close by. There was no indication that the animal had been 
nearer than a hundred feet to the entrance. While the warm 
weather lasts they do not trouble habitations very much, but 
when in the mountains the weather begins to get colder, 
the rat looks out for a warm place for his winter residence, and 
