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Rose, Everton, Stankavich, and Walke 
(2) the demography of mammals living in an opening and along an 
ecotone within the forest, in which live traps were used (Stankavich 
1984); and (3) the distribution and habitats of small mammals in the 
Dismal Swamp (Everton 1985), in which pitfall traps were used. Together 
those studies form the basis for this paper. Our objectives were to 
determine the status of the two rare species and to learn more about the 
distribution and abundance of the small mammals of the Dismal 
Swamp. 
MATERIALS AND METHODS 
Each study involved 15-18 months of field work, conducted during 
the period October 1980 through February 1982, during which time the 
region was in a severe drought. 
Walke (1984) tested the idea of Breidling et al. (1983) that forest 
mammals are present in low numbers because of the poor quality and 
unpredictability of the food supply, by the use of four large grids (on 
1.96 ha, with 8X8 sites at 20-m intervals), each with the 64 tree- 
mounted nest boxes designed to be suitable for use by arboreal P. 
leucopus and O. nuttalli. In the two experimental grids, 100 g of mixed 
seeds and lab blocks was added to each nest box whenever it was 
examined. The two control grids had nest boxes that provided shelter 
and hay for building nests, but did not have supplemental food. Nest 
boxes were examined at biweekly intervals (later at weekly intervals 
when activity levels increased) to catch animals and to evaluate evidence 
of their activity (presence of nests, food caches, and scats). 
Because her live-trapping study was conducted during a drought, 
Stankavich (1984) studied small mammals in what might be considered 
ephemeral habitats. Fitch live traps (one per station) were set at 7.6-m 
intervals in two rectangular grids (0.38 and 0.40 ha) under a 40-m-wide 
110-kv powerline located in the northwest corner of the swamp. These 
grids were placed between the pairs of grids of nest boxes in an effort to 
monitor the movements of small mammals from one habitat to another. 
The two grids differed in amount of flooding and in composition of 
vegetation, with one dominated by cane and the other by thick herbaceous 
vegetation, primarily Panicum grasses and spikerush, Juncus effusus ; 
sections of the latter grid remained flooded even in the drought. 
Trapping was conducted for 2 days every 2 weeks from October 1980 
through February 1982. (On frequent visits since, the second grid has 
been totally flooded, some sections to 1-m depths.) 
Everton (1985) used 0.25-ha grids, each consisting of a 5-by-5 plot 
with a water-filled no. 10 tin can, sunk so that the lip was flush with the 
ground surface, as a pitfall trap at each station. Pitfall traps were 
