weather but do not venture outside. Trapping has again and again proved
to be useless on rainy nights, unless the rain is scant and a part of
the night favorable, in which case occasional individuals are taken.
These statements apply to the Range Reserve particularly; the facts may
be quite different where the animals experience more winter, as at
Albuquerque, N. Mex., although in November, 1921, Vorhies noted no
indications of lessened activity in that region.


PUGNACITY AND SOCIABILITY.

So far as their reactions toward man are concerned, kangaroo rats are
gentle and make confiding and interesting pets; this is especially the
case with _merriami_. This characteristic is the more surprising in view
of the fact that they will fight each other so readily and so viciously,
and yet probably it is explained in part by their method of fighting.
They do not appear to use their teeth toward each other, but fight by
leaping in the air and striking with the powerful hind feet, reminding
one most forcibly of a pair of game cocks, facing each other and
guarding in the same manner. Sometimes they carry on a sparring match
with their fore feet. Biting, if done at all, is only a secondary means
of combat. When taken in hand, even for the first time, they will use
their teeth only in the event that they are wounded. The jaws are not
powerful, and though the animals may lay hold of a bare finger, with the
apparent intention of biting, usually they do not succeed in drawing
blood. As Bailey says (1905, 148), they are gentle and timid, and, like
rabbits, depend upon flight and their burrows for protection.

The well-traveled trails elsewhere described (p. 10) indicate a degree
of sociability difficult to explain in connection with their pugnacity