GENEKAL NOTES 
117 
A similar incident was related by Mr. Chas. H. Hamby concerning the prairie 
brush rat (doubtless Neotoma) which gathers large mounds of sticks, grass, dry 
cow-dung and the like for its nest. Sometimes possession of the nest is success- 
fully disputed by rattlesnakes, which formerly infested the Driscoll Ranch (now 
in cultivation) 25 miles southeast of Austin, where the observation was made. 
Mr. Hamby describes the rat as the chief aggressor in the battle witnessed by 
him. The snake never struck, but confined its activities chiefly to attempts at 
escaping. It would coil up while the rat would stalk round and round until a fav- 
orable opportunity presented itself when the rat would pounce upon the coiled 
mass and bite furiously. Thereupon the snake would attempt to escape only to 
coil up again for defense. This procedure was repeated until the snake collapsed; 
and even after this the rat bit the snake a dozen times before leaving the field of 
battle. During the fight both snake and rat seemed perfectly oblivious of the 
observer’s presence. 
Doubtless the ferocity of the brown rat is a character which makes for its sur- 
vival and spread, as contrasted with its competitors. Perhaps it is the attenua- 
tion of this character in the albino which renders this form impossible to feralize, 
as five unsuccessful attempts by Donaldson (Wistar Institute) have shown. ’ — 
Carl Hartman, The University of Texas, Austin, Texas. 
WOODLAND JUMPING MOUSE NEAR TUXEDO, NEW YORK 
On the morning of September 4, 1920, at the boy scout camp in the Interstate 
Park, some six miles east of Tuxedo, New York, I found in a mouse trap set the 
evening before an adult male of Napmozapus insignis. This particular trap had 
been placed in some low woods near a small burrow opening beneath a clump of 
bushes, and the wire loop had struck the mouse only at the base of the tail. The 
night had been cool; and this had doubtless a marked effect upon the behavior 
of the jumping mouse, for the trap had been dragged only four feet. Its victim 
when found was in the sleepy condition of hibernation, showing the result of the 
lowered temperature even at this early date, for it became active again when 
warmed. 
The only previous records of this species of which I am aware, anywhere in the 
■vicinity of New York City, are those of Mr. Rhoads at Lake Hopatcong, New 
Jersey,^ and of Doctor Mearns in the Catskill Mountains, New York.^ According 
to Mr. Rhoads this jumping mouse is found in both Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey in parts of the upper transition zone where no “boreal islands” exist, and 
certainly the spot where the present example was captured had no particularly 
boreal aspect. — James P. Chapin, American Museum of Natural History, New 
York. 
1 Unpublished data, in addition to the following: Donaldson, Henry H., 1916, 
“Experiment on the feralization of the albino rat;” Carnegie Yearbook No. 15 of 
the Carnegie Inst., pp. 200-201. 
2 S. N. Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1897, p. 29; Mammals of 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, 1903, p. 112. 
® Dr. E. A. Mearns, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 21, 1898, p. 348. 
