SCIURID.E— SPERMOPHILUS GRAMMURUS AND VARIETIES. 833 



Geographical distribution. — The habitat, of Spermophilus grammurus 

 var. grammurus extends from the parks of Central Colorado southward into 

 Mexico, probably to a considerable distance beyond the boundary of the United 

 States. In some portions of Colorado, as in the vicinity of Boulder, whence 

 many specimens have been brought, it appears to be a common and character- 

 istic species. It occurs in Western Texas, but further north does not appear 

 to occur much to the eastward of the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains. 

 It ranges thence westward to, and probably throughout, the Great Basin, at all 

 favorable localities. There are specimens in the collection from Ogden and 

 Provo, Utah, and Virginia City, Nev. Var. douglassi ranges from Northern 

 California to Fort Dalles and Klamath Lake, Oreg. In Northern California, 

 it gradually passes into var. beccheyi, which ranges thence southward through- 

 out Southern California, and probably further southward. The most southern 

 points represented in the collection are Fort Tejon and San Diego. Speci- 

 mens referable to beecheyi have been collected by Mr. H. W. Henshaw on the 

 eastern slope of the Sierra Nevadas. The species grammurus hence ranges 

 from the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast, and from 

 beyond the Mexican boundary northward to Central Colorado, Northern Utah, 

 and Oregon.* 



l'epaule jusqu'a la cbnte des reins, avant la naissance de la queue; les parties infeneures, les flancs, le 

 dedans des nienibres sont blauchiUres, uiais tous les poils de ees parties sont a moiti6 noirs et tannines 

 de blauc settlement. 



"Les soies de cet dcureuil sont tiues, peu abondantes et noires; le nil des tarses est uoiratre; les 

 ougles faibles et ac6r6s sont bruus; la queue parfaitemeut aplatie et a poils distiques, est coloree en 

 dessus de noir et de blauc melange an milieu, et blanc sur les bords; eu dessous elle est blaucbe, bordee 

 et terminer de noir, puis fraugtSe de poils blancs. Cette coloration est due a ce que cbaque poil est blanc 

 a la base, noir au milieu, et blanc an soinmet. 



" Ce petit eeureuil doit, a la faiblesse de ses ongles, vivre uniquement sur les arbres. Nous n'avons 

 pu verifier son systeme dentaire parce que le seul individn soumis a notre <5tude appartenait a un muse'e, 

 et proveuait de la Californie, niais sans indication de locality precise." — (" Description de Mammiferes et 

 d'Oiseaux recentmcnt decouverts, iprecedee d'un Tableau sur les Races Humaines, par M. Lesson, Paris, 1847", 

 pp. 143-145.) 



*" This species is apparently more or less active at southern localities throughout the winter. 

 Mr. T. G. Cary, who formerly resided many years in California, and knows the species well, assures me 

 that about San Mateo they were to be met with abundantly at all seasons, apparently spending no por- 

 tion of the year in a state of hibernation. This is confirmed by the observations of Dr. Coues, who 

 enjoyed excellent opportunities of studying its habits in Southern California, and who found it as active 

 as ever during the latter part of November, 1865, in the vicinity of San Pedro. Dr. J. G. Cooper also 

 states that on the Los Angeles Plaius, in the southern part of the State, they "do not hibernate", 

 but may be seen there in wiuter actively running about or sitting erect near their burrows.— {American 

 Naturalist, vol. iii, p. 182.) 



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