124 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



ders of the State and high elevations, are very desirable. The same 

 may be said of the pouched or kangaroo rats. 



Of the native or wood mice, there are six species or more, which 

 require more comparison and study to determine. 



A wood rat, with a bushy tail like a squirrel, is said to be found in the 

 northei-n and eastern mountains. Skins or skulls are wanted to deter- 

 mine its species. 



The field mice, living in grassy places, with short legs and tails, large 

 heads, and coarse fur, are little known, and all specimens will be useful. 



The rabbit mouse, without a tail, with large round ears and rather 

 small eyes, lives among the granite boulders near the summit of tlie 

 Sierra Nevada. Yery little is known of its habits, and only three sjieci- 

 mens are known to have been yet preserved. 



Of the hare and rabbit kind, seven species are pretty well known to 

 occur in various parts of this State, and another has been seen in the 

 snowy regions of the southern Sierra, in summer. This is said to be 

 very large, white, with very large feet, and otherwise like the hare of 

 Arctic America. To determine the species by skins and by skulls, no 

 matter how imperfect, will be one of the most interesting contribu- 

 tions to science that can be made by travellers in those lofty regions. 

 It is probable that these hares will be found also on the mountains 

 northward, or they will otherwise be likely to differ entirely from the 

 Arctic hare. 



Of ruminating animals, it is not yet known exactly how many species 

 of deer inhabit California. Comparisons of good skins and skulls of the 

 white tailed deer with the Virginia deer are required to prove their dis- 

 tinctness. The Mexican deer, very small, but otherwise like the white 

 tailed, may be found in the southern part of the State. The kinds found 

 in the various districts should be observed carefully, to determine how 

 man}' there are and how they differ. 



The antelope and mountain sheep, or big horn, are fast becoming 

 extinct in California. Experiments in taming these animals should be 

 encouraged, both on account of their beauty and usefulness. The moun- 

 tain sheep, if capable of domestication, would be superior to any of the 

 tame breeds for mutton, and grows as large as three of them. Its skin 

 is also useful, though it bears no wool. 



BIRDS. 



Like mammals, birds may be conveniently divided into the carnivo- 

 rous, (and fish-eating.) insectivorous, granivorous, and omnivorous, though 

 this does not exactly give their relations in a natural classification. 

 Three hundred and fifty species inhabit California. 



Of the carniverous species, such as the hawks, owls, and vultures, all 

 are killed without discrimination by the farmer, who does not study 

 their habits sufficiently to see that many of them are not only harmless 

 to his poultry but are among his best friends, by their destruction of 

 squirrels, gophers, and mice. It would be better when they come around 

 the farmyard to frighten them away by a peppering with fine shot than 

 to kill them; and it is a mistake tosuppose that the small kinds, which 

 live wholly on mice, etc, ever grow to be large, no bird of any kind 

 growing materially after it is able to fly. 



Eleven species of owls are known to inhabit this State, and of those 

 only the great horned owl is believed ever to molest poultry. The rest 

 are even better destroyers of rats and mice than the hawks, on account 



