88 
ORDERS OF MAMMALS — GNAWING ANIMALS 
usually dark brown mixed with black. Seven 
species are known, extending in range from 
Labrador westward to Oregon, Washington and 
northern British Columbia, and also down to 
Colorado. None are found in the eastern half of 
the United States. There is no special mark 
by which it is easy to distinguish them from their 
nearest relatives, the red-backed mice. 
The species most widely distributed, and 
best known, is the Northwestern Vole , 1 the 
largest member of this group, — a grayish-brown 
creature, with feet and all under parts white, or 
nearly so. It inhabits Alberta, British Colum- 
bia, Idaho, Wyoming, Washington and south 
central Oregon. Length of head and body, 4 
inches, tail, If inches. 
In mental capacity the Wood Rat, Pack Rat, 
Trading Rat or Bushy-Tailed Rat 2 is the most 
wonderful member of the whole Rat-and-Mouse 
Family, at least in North America. The true 
stories of its pranks are almost beyond belief. 
Seemingly its chief object in life is to play prac- 
tical jokes on mankind ; and any rat which mani- 
fests a spirit of toleration toward man surely is 
entitled to special consideration. 
The typical Wood Rat is a large-sized, big- 
eyed, large-eared and rather handsome creature, 
FLORIDA WOOD RAT. 
without the mean, vicious look of a common rat, 
with fine yellowish-gray fur, white feet, and white 
under parts. In some species, the tail is cov- 
ered with long hair, and by this fact alone it is 
possible to distinguish many members of the 
genus. The Wood Rats are distributed very 
1 Phenacornys orophilus. 2 Neotoma. 
generally throughout the southern and western 
part of the United States, and are also found in 
British Columbia and Mexico. Frequently their 
presence is indicated by the huge, mound-like 
nests, from two to three feet high, which they 
build of twigs, grass, leaves and bark. 
These animals are nocturnal in their habits, 
and their nest-building and other work is done 
at night. The most remarkable thing about 
them is their habit of entering houses and playing 
practical jokes upon the inmates. A pair of 
Wood Rats that I knew by reputation at Oak 
Lodge, in Florida, first carried a lot of water- 
melon seeds from the ground floor upstairs, and 
hid them under a pillow. Then they took from 
the kitchen a tablespoonful of cucumber seeds, 
and placed them in the pocket of a vest which 
hung upstairs on a nail. In one night they re- 
moved from a box eighty-five pieces of bee-hive 
fixtures, and hid them in another box, and on 
the following night they deposited in the first 
box about two quarts of corn and oats. 
Western frontiersmen, and others who live in 
the land of the Wood Rat, relate stories innu- 
merable of the absurd but industrious doings of 
these strange creatures. In general they are 
rather harmless. One of the best known spe- 
cies is the Florida Wood Rat . 3 It belongs to 
the round-tailed group and does not have the 
hairy, squirrel-like tail of some of the western 
wood rats. Its upper color is tan mixed with 
brown, feet and under parts white. The length 
of the head and body is 8J inches, tail 6f inches. 
Distribution: the southern states from the Car- 
olinas to Texas. 
The Little Harvest Mouse looks so much 
like a small house mouse, 2^+2 inches long, 
that only an expert can readily recognize it 
at first sight. The ten or more species are 
scattered throughout the southern, southwest- 
ern and Pacific states, but none of them are 
found in northeastern North America. The 
usual color is gray-brown above, and lighter 
underneath, and the best known example is Le 
Conte’s Harvest Mouse 4 of the south Atlantic 
states, from Virginia to Florida. 
The Rice-Field Mouse 5 should have been 
called a rat, for it is 5 inches long, with a five- 
inch tail. It is strictly a southern animal, in- 
3 Neotoma floridana. 4 Reithrodontomys lecontii. 
5 Oryzomys palustris. 
