248 
JOUENAL OF MAMMALOGY 
seasons in the building. Each contained a large central chamber. 
In each nest I found a single old rat and signs that young had been in 
the nests recently. One of the curious features of these nests was the 
amount of dry manure used in the construction. Fully one-third of 
their bulk was made up of this material brought from an adjacent 
pasture. 
FOOD AND FEEDING HABITS 
There is plenty of evidence that the woodrat is a gross and destructive 
feeder. The animals are wanton in their ravages, destroying great 
quantities of things for which they have no use. It seems to be their 
special delight to enter cabins and ranch houses or other buildings and 
chew up papers, books, clothing, and whatever else they may find and 
such debris is left in heaps wherever it has been destroyed. 
I have never seen papers or kindred articles in the nests or signs that 
they have been taken any great distance from dwellings. Bits of 
bright cloth like other bright things may be carried to some distance. 
At the cabin of a friend the food supplies were regularly raided and the 
salt and soap seemed to be favorite articles. One spring my friend 
missed some silk socks and a bright necktie. In the fall we found 
both in remnants together with some soap in a nest a quarter of a 
mile away. The rats seemed to develop a streak of mischief with a 
bit of humor and persistence in it. Every night the woodbox in the 
cook shack was a center of attention. This building being more or 
less open the rats had easy access at night. In the morning the 
wood was to be found on the floor, the pieces being laid out in rows 
and placed neatly end to end. This was repeated many times. 
The season of 1919 produced an abundance of wild berries and fruits. 
The madrone trees bore enormous crops, of the bright red berries which 
are known as the favorite food of the robins and wild pigeons of this 
region. In the vicinity of my friend^s cabin the madrones are very 
abundant and the woodrats are also present in very large numbers. 
When we were opening some of the nests in search of young we found 
great numbers of madrone berries, which had been cut from the trees 
in clusters and taken to the nests as needed. This fruit must have been 
used to feed the young since the old rats eat what they require where 
it grows. It is a significant fact that the berries were placed conve- 
niently near the little breeding nests that had contained young very 
recently. The berries are not eaten for the pulp that surrounds the 
large seeds but in the nests they are cracked open and the kernel is 
eaten as we would eat a nut. 
