Transactions and proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia (Incorporated) . uals; but upon the island platform they aremade of sticks of fresh Me^emhryanthiinum, and nearer to thesea of wrack and dried seaweed. The larger nests are com-plicated within, a series of passages and chambers being madein the heap of collected debris,; but the smaller nests consistof an entrance run, a central chamber, and an exit run the sea beaches a whisp of wrack tucked in betweentwo boulders, or some seaweed collected in a cleft in the graniterocks suffices for a home. In any case, the nests
Transactions and proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia (Incorporated) . uals; but upon the island platform they aremade of sticks of fresh Me^emhryanthiinum, and nearer to thesea of wrack and dried seaweed. The larger nests are com-plicated within, a series of passages and chambers being madein the heap of collected debris,; but the smaller nests consistof an entrance run, a central chamber, and an exit run the sea beaches a whisp of wrack tucked in betweentwo boulders, or some seaweed collected in a cleft in the graniterocks suffices for a home. In any case, the nests smell badly,the lining is stained yellow, and reeks of ammonia; and allnests examined were tenanted by a beetle (Ectro-ma heneflca,Newm.). Quite a large proportion of the rat population lives uponthe sea beaches, beneath and between the granite boulderswhich lie scattered along the shore. The staple article ofdiet is the succulent leaves of Tetragona implexicoma, andenormous quantities are consumed. It would appear that therats also do a certain amount of scavenging along the tide. Arctocephalus forsterL External characters of the headand face. From a young male specimen. line, for their footprints are always to be seen along thesand, right down to low-water mark. There is no fresh waterupon the islands. The breeding season is evidently in the colder monthsof the year, for during the time that visits have been paidto the islands (November-February) no pregnant or nursingfemales or very young animals have been obtained. 190 The rat lives upon both of the Franklin Islands, but uponno other islands yet visited. It is by no means nocturnal—most of its activities are crepuscular—but at any time of theday some individuals may be seen along the shore in theint-ervals between the massive granite boulders. Even in avisit at noon, on a particularly hot day, four specimens wereobtained along a stretch of some 200 yards of beach. Thereappears to be no sort of hostility between the rats
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectscience, bookyear1912
