on of the feet could be seen. The tapping was
kept up for a second or two at a time, the sounds coming close together
and being repeated rhythmically after a very short interval, suggesting
the distant galloping of a horse. After continuing in this way for a
short time, the animal turned quickly about, with its head in the
opposite direction, and began tapping. It appeared to pay little
attention to the light, but finally gave a sudden bound and entered one
of its holes about 4 feet from the one in front of which it had been
standing.

Vorhies has repeatedly noted when watching for the appearance of a
kangaroo rat at night that this sound invariably precedes the rodent's
first emergence into the open, and often its appearance after an alarm,
though when the storage season has begun and the kangaroo rat is
carrying loads of grass heads or other material into its den, it
regularly comes out without preliminary signaling. Vorhies has also
observed it making the sound while on top of the mound, and certainly
not digging, but was unable to see how it was made.

VOICE.

No data concerning any call notes or sounds other than those described
above are at hand, with the following exception: Price (in Allen, 1895,
213), who studied the habits of the animal in the moonlight, at Willcox,
Ariz., says that a low chuckle was uttered at intervals; and Vorhies has
had one captive female that would repeatedly utter a similar chuckle in
a peevish manner when disturbed by day, and one captive male which, when
teased into a state of anger and excitement, would squeal much like a
cornered house rat. Vorhies has spent many moonlight hours observing
kangaroo rats, but without ever hearing a vocal sound uttered by free
individuals.

DAILY AND SEASONAL ACTIVITY.

The kangaroo rat is strictly nocturnal. An observer watching patiently
by a den in the evening for the animal's first appearance is not
rewarded until darkness has fallen completely, and unless the moon is
shining the animal can hardly be seen. Were it not for the white
tail-brush of _spectabilis_ and its white belly when upright on the hind
legs and tail, one could not as a rule see the animal at all when it
makes its first evening appearance. With the first streak of dawn
activity usually ceases completely and much more abruptly than it began
with the coming of darkness, but on a recent occasion Vorhies observed
that a kangaroo rat which did not appear until near morning rem