250 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
are exceedingly aromatic. It is this latter group which is closely 
associated with the woodrats. To the woodrats or to the signs they 
leave, credit is due for many important discoveries. These signs and 
the reading of them are most important to the collector who desires 
to secure specimens of this kind. 
There is a district within easy reach of San Jose which I visit fre- 
quently in following up the life cycle of the various species of fungi. 
This is the region of the New Almaden Mines and the Guadaloupe 
Mines. The rats are or have been assembled there literally by the 
thousands. It is a region well favored with all kinds of fungi. It is 
wooded densely with a second growth of liveoak interspersed with the 
usual underbrush of manzanita, Baccharis and poison oak. The soil 
is largely pulverized rock and quartz. For a long time I got very 
poor results in the collecting of fungi but occasionally I found large 
specimens of the Agaricacese and Boletacese which had been partly 
consumed by some small animals. At the same time my attention was 
frequently called to many excavations in the leaves and hard soil. 
These excavations were very puzzling but I had in mind the fact that 
some animals fed on truffles in Europe and that there might be a 
similar occurrence here. 
The mystery of these holes in the ground induced me to return many 
times to this region long after it seemed that search for the truffles 
was useless. Persistence in following up these signs led to the finding 
and developing a district wonderfully rich in these strange forms of 
fungi. Months were spent in learning the meaning of these signs and 
excavations made by rodents but now they are read with as much cer- 
tainty as a printed page. The form of the excavation often serves to 
identify the various genera of fungi present. But it is important to 
note that these signs do not reveal all that is undergound. The woodrat 
is the mushroom hunter par excellence. 
Late in March of 1917 I w^as in the Guadaloupe Mine region follow- 
ing up some discoveries of a few days before. I became involved in 
a dense thicket of manzanita where progress was made only on hands 
and knees. I shortly brought up before a rat^s nest of large size and 
disturbed a rat working in a hole at the base. Examination revealed 
several other holes in process of excavation and one large hole about 
four inches in diameter at the top and nearly a foot deep. At the bot- 
tom of this hole was a large fungus, strongly but not unpleasantly 
aromatic, which was partly eaten. 
