MAMMALS OF THE REGION 67 



after the skin and skull had been saved and the 

 stomach examined for notes on food habits, furnished 

 me a hearty lunch when I was out all day in Walnut 

 Canyon. 



The rock squirrels are large, heavy-bodied, bushy- 

 tailed, gray animals of the ground-squirrel group, about 

 the size of the eastern gray squirrel. 



MEXICAN GROUND-SQUIRREL 



Citellus mexicanus parvidens 



These large, striped-backed ground-squirrels are com- 

 mon in the Carlsbad region and over the Pecos Valley, 

 but none was seen up on the ridges near the cave. 

 They are burrowing animals and mainly restricted to 

 the mellow-soiled valley country, or where they can 

 find easy digging for their burrows under mesquite, 

 creosote, or other sheltering bushes. The first one 

 seen was on March 11, the day of my arrival, which 

 may well have been about their first appearance from 

 hibernation. Others were occasionally seen on warm 

 days during most of my stay, or up to May 3, and all 

 had the long fur and large bushy tails of the winter 

 coat. Rarely are they so numerous as to be of any 

 serious economic importance, and the slight damage 

 they sometimes do to crops may well be compensated 

 by their destruction of weed seeds and insects. 



The Mexican ground-squirrel is easily recognized by 

 its striped back, short ears, arid long, slender tail. It 

 is much smaller than the rock squirrel and lives in the 

 valley. 



