ZOK 



A BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL 



Vol. IV. JANUARY, 1894. No. 4. 



NOTES ON A COLLECTION OF MAMMALS FROM 

 THE SIERRA NEVADA MOUNTAINS. 



BY WILLIAM W. PRICE. 



In the summer of 1892 the writer made a trip into the higher 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains, during which he secured for the 

 Leland Stanford Jr. University the small collection of mammals 

 on which the following notes are based. The collecting was 

 done chiefly in three different localities; namely, at Red Point 

 and at Summit Station, in Placer County, and on Mount Tallac, 

 in El Dorado County. 



The topography of the country, hastily sketched, is as follows: 

 Red Point is at an altitude of about 4500 feet, on the Forest Hill 

 Divide — a tongue of land lying between the North and Middle 

 Forks of the American River. Heavy forests of sugar and 

 yellow pines, fir, spruce, and cedar clothe the ridges; the under- 

 growth is composed chiefly of several species of Ceanothus, 

 manzanita, and scrub oak. 



The open, brushy tracts on the top of the ridge are the favorite 

 haunts of the long-eared chipmunk, Tamias macro7'habdotes . 

 The California ground squirrel, Spermophiliis graniinuncs beecheyi, 

 which has here about reached its vertical limit, is common on 

 rocky hillsides. Two other squirrels, the California gray 

 squirrel, Sciurus fossor, and the California chickaree, Sciurus 

 hudsonius calif ornicus , are found everywhere in the timber 

 though preferring deep hillside forests. 



Summit Station, the highest point on the Central Pacific 

 Railroad, is about 7000 feet above the sea. On the east 

 the mountains descend abruptly toward Donner Lake, 

 but westward the slope is much more gradual. A broad, 

 grassy valley, the head waters of the Yuba River, takes its rise 



December 21, 1893. 



