In the forties, when the woodrat was common on the area, its local distribution seemed to be determined mainly by the osage orange. Many houses of the woodrat were built around old stumps at the bases of large, spreading osage orange trees. Frequently the houses were in the main crotch of a tree two to eight feet from the ground. Characteristically the rats used horizontal or gently inclined, low branches of the tree as runways to and from the house. In summer and early autumn these rats stored foliage of the osage orange in large quantities in chambers adjacent to the nest. The seeds also provided an important food source. During the period 1948 to 1951 the woodrat population steadily decreased, and one by one the houses in osage orange trees were deserted, until the small surviving population of woodrats was limited to hilltop rock outcrops not associated with osage orange trees. The seeds are well liked by other rodents also. In late fall and winter after the "hedge balls" have fallen, fox squirrels visit the trees and shred the fruits to gain access to the seeds. Over periods of weeks heaps of the shredded refuse accumulate at the base of the tree trunk. The seeds probably constitute the one most important winter food of the fox squirrel. The tufted titmouse also relies to a large extent on the seeds for its winter food. Being unable to shred the bulky hedge balls itself, it depends almost entirely on the seeds in fruits torn open by the squirrel but not fully utilized by it. At times when the ground and trees are snow-covered, making unavailable most other food sources, the osage orange seeds gleaned from refuse heaps in the sheltered feeding places of the squirrels are probably of critical importance to the titmouse. The cottontail and white-footed mouse also eat the seeds. #Platanus occidentalis.#--Sycamores are few and scattered on the area, but those present seem to be holding their own if not gaining in numbers. They include some of the largest trees on the Reservation. The most typical habitat is along rocky ravines on wooded slopes. Occasional trees are scattered through the woods away from ravines on slopes of north, east, or west exposures, or on hilltop edges, providing strong evidence that these areas were more open at the time the sycamore seedlings became established. Cutting of the mature trees in the original forest and subsequent grazing might have created the conditions favorable for their establishment. Many saplings have sprung up in the fallow hilltop fields that were formerly cultivated.