. The quadrupeds of North America [microform]. Mammals; Rodentia; Mammifères; Rongeurs. 336 CANADA POUCHED KAT. i Steps from the hole and cuts the grass, with which he fills his cheek-pouches, and then ri 'ires into his burrow to eat it undisturbed. You may see tlie Pseudostoma now and then sitting on its rump and basking in tlio rays of tlie sun, on which occasions it may easily be shot if you are prompt, but if missed it disappears at once, is seen no more, and will even dig a burrow to a considerable distance, in order to get out of the ground at some other place where it may not be observe
. The quadrupeds of North America [microform]. Mammals; Rodentia; Mammifères; Rongeurs. 336 CANADA POUCHED KAT. i Steps from the hole and cuts the grass, with which he fills his cheek-pouches, and then ri 'ires into his burrow to eat it undisturbed. You may see tlie Pseudostoma now and then sitting on its rump and basking in tlio rays of tlie sun, on which occasions it may easily be shot if you are prompt, but if missed it disappears at once, is seen no more, and will even dig a burrow to a considerable distance, in order to get out of the ground at some other place where it may not be observed. This' species may be caught in steel-traps, or common box-traps, with which we i)rocured two of them. Wlien caught in a steel-tra[), they frequently lacerate the leg by which they are held, which is generally the hind one, by their struggles to get free. They are now and then turned up by the plough, and we have known one caught in this manner. They sometimes destroy the roots of young fruit-trees to the number of one or two hundred in the course of a few days and nights ; and tliey will cut those of full grown trees of the most valuable kinds, such as the apple, pear, peach and plum. This species is found to vary in size very greatly on comparing diiferent individuals, and they also vary in their colour according to age, although we found no difference caused by sex. The commonly received oinnion is, that these rats fill their pouches with the earth fiom their burrows, and empty them at the entrance. This is, however, quite an erroneous idea. Of about a dozen, which were shot dead in the very act of rising out of their mounds and burrows, none had any earth in their sacs; but the fore-feet, teeth, nose, and the anterior and upper portion of their heads, were found covered with adherent earth. On the contrary, most of them had their pouches filled with either blades of grass or roots of different trees ; and W(! think of these iiouches, that their being hairy within, rather
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Keywords: ., bookauthorau, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectmammals
