CALIFORNIA PRAIRIE 285 



upon and storing grass seeds; it has been the subject of careful study 

 by Vorhies and Taylor (1922). The second, D. merriami merriami 

 Mearns, is a desert species much smaller and much less abundant; it 

 does not store food and is accused of pilfering the hoards of spectabilis. 

 Grass vegetation is, however, important to it. 



Spectabilis ranges outside the grassland proper, decreasing toward 

 the desert and toward pinyon-cedar and yellow pine. The mounds are 

 often associated with shrubs. Geckos, camel crickets, and wingless 

 female cockroaches are common in dens (Vorhies and Taylor, 1933), 

 which also form a retreat for rattlesnakes, grasshopper mice, ground 

 squirrels {Citellus tereticaudus [Baird] and Ammospermophilus har- 

 7-isii [A. & B.]), when kangaroo rats have deserted them. These rats 

 are probably the most important influents of the association. They 

 are preyed upon by the badger {Taxidea taxus berlandieri [Baird]), 

 the kit fox {Vulpes macrotis neomexicana Mer.) and the Mearn's coy- 

 ote {Canis mearnsi ]\Ier.). The wolf, now extirpated, was represented 

 by the small dark IMexican species. The area possesses an outstand- 

 ing jack rabbit known as the antelope jackrabbit {Lepus alleni 

 ]\Iearns) because of its swiftness and its exceptionally large ears. The 

 prairie dog is represented by Cynomys ludovicianus arizonensis 

 (Mearns). The habits of the species present in this area are similar 

 to those of other grasslands, and all the important life habit types are 

 present (cf. Vorhies, 1936). 



CALIFORNIA PRAIRIE 



Nature and Extent. This has been termed Pacific prairie as well 

 as California prairie, but the latter is to be preferred as being more 

 definite, since this unit is restricted entirely to California and Lower 

 California. By reason of the barriers interposed by mountain range 

 and desert, this association is today almost completely isolated from 

 the others of this climax. It passes over quickly into the extension 

 of the Palouse prairie in northern California, and a former contact 

 with the mixed prairie and the desert plains on the east is now repre- 

 sented by a few straggling relicts in and about the IMohave and Colo- 

 rado Deserts (Clements, 1936) . South of Mount Shasta, and from the 

 coast to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, this prairie and the re- 

 lated disclimax covered more than three-fourths of the land before the 

 period of intensive agricultural development. Much of the most ex- 

 tensive areas were found in the plainlike valleys of the Sacramento 

 and San Joaquin, and southward of the Cross Ranges, but all the 

 lateral valleys and the adjacent slopes and foothills from central Cali- 



