lOG 



I'm: Canadian Field-Naturalist. 



[Vol. XXXV. 



and were particularly eonspicuoiis against 

 the white of the landscape. 



After the show I followed weasel trails 

 frequently and found that they freely 

 went in and out of all gopher dens that 

 lay conveniently to their course. As a 

 diet the gopher is evidently highly re- 

 garded by this animal, but I found it im- 

 possible to ascertain when they explored 

 with success. It was incredible that there 

 could have been a gopher in each of the 

 burrows visited, for in the course of a 

 night's run they seemed almost innumer- 

 able. I never had' the patience to follow 

 to the end in all its intricacies the night's 

 trail of an ermine, although my wander- 

 ings in this regard have been really exten- 

 sive as a whole, and not without a like 

 measure of enlightenment and pleasure. 



An old plainsman told me that once from 

 his horse, he watched a prairie weasel enter 

 a Richardson's ground squirrel colony 

 when tlie majority of the members were 

 under ground. He bounded easily but 

 furtively about from mound to hollow and 

 througli"^ herbage, lithe as a reptile, and 

 nosing the ground occcasionally like a 

 hound. Presently there caught his eye an 

 isolated and unlucky gopher liberally 

 separated from his burrow. The latter 

 was feeding with his back towards the 

 weasel, but at this moment, apprehending 

 danger by some subtlety, he clumsily wheel- 

 ed and made a few frightened jumps to- 

 wards his home. -The weasel met him 

 with the thirst of conquest, sever- 

 ing all hope of escape. In a flash 

 the gopher, realizing this, sank back 

 threateningly, chattering and screeching 

 hoarsely with terror; the next breath and 

 the two were mixed in combat. But, stran- 

 ge to relate, attracted by the confusion of 

 wails and weird vocal pirouettings from 

 the expiring gopher, relatives and neigh- 

 bors shot out everjnvhere from their bur- 

 rows, and poured in one averting or aveng- 

 ing mob about the ears of the aggressor. 

 Left alone with one gopher the weasel is un- 

 doubtedly happy, but this chippering, 

 champing, insane rabble was too much. He 

 . breasted the tide gallantly for a while, lost 

 heart, and remembered a pressing engage- 

 ment in another quarter; or were the 

 grapes sour anyway? A few gophers fol- 

 lowed him for a short distance by way of 

 impressing further the ignominy of defea", 

 then returned with declining ardor to dis- 



perse gradually to their separate dens. My 

 informant remarked that the wliole was so 

 quickly enacted that he sat in the saddle 

 half bewildered, scarcely able to compre- 

 liend the fleeting bit of wild drama that 

 had passed before his eyes. Even the out- 

 raged gopher, he said, had so far recover- 

 ed, that when he rode down into the colony 

 it too limped its way along and dissappear- 

 ed, leaving the prairie still and deserted. 



In regard to the hibernation of this go- 

 pher I was agreeably surprised. I had re- 

 ceived the impression in some manner that, 

 like the woodchucks of the east, they dis- 

 appeared in mid-September; instead," how- 

 ever, they braved the rigors of October and 

 even that of November. After the snow- 

 fall of October 7 they dug upwards through 

 the snow as numerous as ever, but the suc- 

 ceeding cold and snow put the majority 

 under by the middle of the month. On 

 October 29, near a wolf-willow clump on 

 the prairie, I noticed where an ambitious 

 individual had tunnelled along under a 

 few inches of snow for over twenty feet. 

 Tliis subterranean work was carried at in- 

 tervals so near the surface that detached 

 portions caved in, exposing the run below. 

 In other instances, by the dirt mixed with 

 the snow, the passage seemed driven di- 

 rectly in contact with the earth. For several 

 days in early November, though the mer- 

 cury was much below zero, an unusually 

 hardy animal, reluctant to assume the long 

 sleep, daily scampered to and fro be- 

 tween den holes in the snow separated by 

 several yards. 



Franklin Ground Squirrel. 



Citellus franklinii (Sabine). 



The northern range-limit of this brush- 

 land cousin of Richardson's gopher, must 

 almost coincide with that of the latter 

 animal, from all information I could get; 

 but in point of abundance there is no com- 

 parison between the tAvo. Richardson's 

 squirrel is almost everywhere south of the 

 Saskatchewan, while Franklin's seems 

 highly restricted in its range, and at Islay 

 is nearly absent. I sighted one as it ran 

 into a bluff near tlie Vermilion river on 

 September 1, but never saw another, al- 

 though five days later on a beautiful after- 

 noon I hunted tliis and other promising 

 localities along the valley until nearly 

 night. Search for them in other localities 

 was likewise fruitless^ Information from 



