128 
ZOOLOGY. 
Quite abundant near Fort Steilacoom, but seemingly not so fond of cutting blankets, cloth 
clothes, flannels, and other woollen fabrics, as the preceding species.—S. 
NEOTOMA 0CCIDENTALIS, Cooper. 
Bushy or Hairy Tailed Rat; Oregon Wood Rat; White-footed Rat. 
[See chap. 2, p. 102.] 
The hairy-tailed or white-footed rat is a very large species ; the tail thickly covered with 
hair ; feet and belly white ; fur dark and pretty fine ; legs very short in proportion to the size 
of the body.—G-. 
When I was first at Astoria, in 1849 and 1850, they were very abundant and troublesome, 
carrying off immense quantities of things, transporting quarts of rice, coffee, &c., which they 
stored in boots and other articles hung up in the shops and warehouses. Lately they have 
become more scarce, having been driven off, I presume, by the ship rat, {Mus decumanus .) 
It is, I think, like the other species of its genus, properly a ivood rat. Lewis and Clark say 
that the rats which inhabit the Rocky mountains, like those on the borders of the Missouri, 
(the N. cinerea ,) have “the tail covered with hair.” They do not mention the white feet and 
large size of the Oregon neotoma, but evidently confound it with the wood rat, now so rare in 
the Atlantic States, of which I caught a specimen many years ago in Massachusetts.—G-. 
This neotoma is common in Washington Territory west of the Cascade mountains. A few 
years ago it was a frequent inhabitant of the houses of the settlers, and still is in such places, 
as the Mus decumanus , or the common brown rat, has not as yet reached. Upon the arrival of 
this latter, the much more harmless neotoma, although fully as large and stout as his adversary, 
soon vacates the premises, either betaking himself to his native wilderness, the forest, or to 
that “bourne from whence no traveller returns.” In regard to the habits of this creature, 
much of interest is related by the settlers. All confirm the accounts given by Mr. Gibbs and 
Dr. Cooper of their thievish practices. 
I obtained a very fine male specimen at New Dungeness, on the Straits of Juan de Fuca. It 
was killed by Mr. Madison, a settler in that locality, who gave me the following account of 
their habits, which he has had many opportunities of observing : He says that when irritated 
or alarmed they have a habit of stamping with their hind feet like rabbits. When sitting at 
rest, or while feeding, they assume the peculiar sitting posture of the squirrel, but differ in the 
manner of carrying the tail, not curling it like the latter animal, but carrying it straight and up. 
They make nests or beds of soft materials, which are frequently as large as a half bushel 
measure. The rat does not burrow into this, but lies in a depression on the top —the -whole fabric 
resembling a bird’s nest. In dwelling-houses this nest is composed of all sorts of material, 
embracing feathers, cotton, bits of calico, fragments of blanket, strips of cloth, shavings, and 
anything else that is light and soft. It is a great thief, magpie-like, stealing articles of which 
it can make no possible use. Mr. M. says that he has known one of these rats carry to its 
magazine, in the course of a single night, two bushels of unshelled peas, from a point 100 yards 
distant. He thinks that these stores are intended for winter consumption—in my opinion a 
very just conclusion. 
My friend, E. D. Warbass, esq., of Bellingham bay, informs me that he has frequently found 
their “caches” of stolen articles—a very heterogeneous mixture of bits of leather, buttons, 
nails, rice, coffee, half dollars, &c. 
