184 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY.* 
Neotoma floridana floridaxa (Ord). 
Mus jioridana Ord, Bull. Soc. philomath., Dec., 1818, p. 181—182. 
Neotoma jioridana Say and Ord, Jour. Acad. nat. sci. Phila., 
1825, vol. 4, p. 352, plate. 
Type locality. St. John’s River, Florida. (Probably in the 
vicinity of Jacksonville.) 
The Florida wood rat ranges over eastern Georgia and extends 
south well down the Florida peninsula. Florida specimens from 
north to a little south of the type locality are, however, not typical, 
being larger, redder, and not so dark in the dorsal region, and 
having tails not so hairy and less sharply bicolored than in true 
N. jioridana. They appear to be perfect intermediates between 
true JV. jioridana and the large red form that occupies the lower 
Mississippi Valley, which I therefore describe here. 
In Georgia and northeastern Florida the wood rat is common and 
is found in most hummocks and swamps, where it lives in hollow 
trees, holes in the ground, or in large nests that it makes in many 
different places, such as old buildings, along the banks of streams, 
at the foot of an old tree or stump, or under the roots of an up¬ 
turned tree, and very rarely in the branches of a tree, like a 
squirrel’s nest. 
In peninsular Florida Neotoma becomes more local, but lives in 
large colonies in the places where it is found. Here its favorite 
haunt is the dense tangled growth along a stream in the heaviest 
cabbage palmetto hummock. In such a place it builds many nests, 
both on the ground and in the palmetto trees. 
The wood rat can be trapped with ease, both in steel traps set in 
its path, or at the entrance to its home, and in the big Schuyler trap 
baited with meat or rolled oats. 
The average measurements of nine fully adult males from New 
Berlin, Duval County, Florida, are: total length, 397.88; tail 
vertebrae, 185.13; hind foot, 37.44. Of six fully adult females, 
from the same locality: total length, 379.5; tail vertebrae, 173.G6; 
hind foot, 36.83. Of three fully adult males from Micco, Florida: 
total length, 423.33; tail vertebrae, 191.33; hind foot, 39.66. 
Mr. Brown collected a series of thirty-one fine specimens at New 
Berlin, Florida, on the St. John’s River, about eight miles from 
Jacksonville, that can be considered topotypes. He also got speci- 
