242 
JOUKNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
I returned to my camp after an evening^s absence just in time to see 
the roll of cake going under the rear flap of the tent. It had been 
rolled, pushed and dragged about considerably but showed few teeth 
marks. Several rats participated in this raid. 
The so-called traderats carry away many very unweildy things, often 
to points high up in trees where nests have been made. They have 
a fondness for dried prunes, crackers, bits of glass, bright metal and 
sometimes pieces of brightly colored cloth and will carry such things 
to the nests for storage. In exchange they leave a chip, a small stone 
or anything that may happen to be handy and such things were fre- 
quently left in place of my bread and potatoes, 
I have a record of a nest built at a considerable height in a pine tree 
that contained the bright inner lid of a lard pail stolen from the camp 
table, an old fashioned perfume bottle with a little mirror on one side, 
and many musty prunes and crackers. The perfume bottle contained 
gun oil and was rescued without the contents having been spilled. I 
have seen many other dexterous performances by these animals. 
I watched many days with a little rifle handy to destroy my visitors 
before seeing one of them. In the meantime I went in search of the 
nests and found a colony established in a dense thicket of hazel brush 
in an almost impenetrable side gulch three hundred yards from camp. 
In this thicket were a dozen large conical nests of the type most com- 
monly seen. These were built in such a way as to receive considerable 
support from the large stalks of the hazel which was very rank in growth. 
These piles of dry sticks were like so much tinder so I fired them, the 
surrounding vegetation being wet and green enough to prevent fire 
from spreading. Fire was applied at the top and burned rapidly down- 
ward. As they were fired one at a time I watched for the fleeing rats 
but saw none. The occupants took to underground passages and later 
came forth and proceeded to rebuild. In a few days the nests were 
well under way and assuming good size. Had a general fire run through 
the brush they would have deserted the locality for an unburned site. 
I have recently (1919-20) witnessed extensive burnings of brushy areas 
to rid a neighborhood of rats and within a month many new nests were 
in process of construction a very short distance from the burned area. 
One morning while at an early breakfast under the trees at my 
camp I noted considerable commotion in the branches overhead. A 
half dozen small animals were running back and forth at play, uncon- 
scious of or unconcerned at my presence. I did not attempt to destroy 
them at this time and in several days they became quite tame showing 
