288 Field Columbian JvIuseum — Zoology, Vol. III. 



CITELLUS. 

 Citellus chrysodeirus. 



Citellus chrysodeirus Merr., N. Am. Faun., No. 4, 1890, p. 19. 

 Elliot, Syn. N. Am. Mamm., 1901, p. 84. 



26 Examples: 3 Little Cottonwood Meadows; 11 Big -Cotton- 

 wood Meadows, 3 Whitney Meadows, 1 Whitney Creek, 4 Mona- 

 che Meadows, 1 Ramshaw Meadows, 2 Big Cottonwood Lakes. 

 Mount Whitney, 1 Summit of the Inyo Range east of Lone Pine. 



"An abundant species in the Boreal Zone of the Sierras in the 

 Mount Whitney region. It is not common in the Transition 

 Zone, the upper part of which it invades as low as 8,000 feet, or 

 the lower limit of the lodge-pole pine. Between 8,000 and 

 r 0,000 feet it is most abundant, extending its range to timber- 

 line, but never becomes common at such high altitudes. The 

 lodge-pole pine forests bordering meadows and streams are its 

 favorite haunts, the burrows being usually placed among granite 

 boulders. A few individuals were found on the summit of the 

 Inyo Range at 8,500 feet in forests of limber pine. Their dis- 

 tribution on this range corresponds with that of Tamias c. 

 inyoensis." 



Citellus leucurus. 



Citellus leucurus Merr., N. Am. Faun., No. 2, 1889, p. 20. 

 Elliot, Syn. N. Am. Mamm., 1901, p. 86. 



32 Specimens: 10 Palm Springs, 9 Whitewater, 1 Banning, 

 4 Morongo Pass, 3 Lone Willow Spring, 5 Daggett. 



"In the eastern part of San Gorgonio Pass the antelope squir- 

 rel occurs abundantly on rocky mesas and on the gravelly bed of 

 the pass. It extends westward through the pass as far as Ban- 

 ning, which lies a little below the summit on the western slope. 

 The cheek pouches of the majority of the specimens secured 

 contained the seeds of the cholla cactus, Opuntia echinocarpa, 

 which is an abundant plant on the eastern slope of the pass. 

 About Banning, however, the squirrels live in thickets of the 

 coast chollas, 0. bernardina, which is an abundant species from 

 the summit westward to the San Bernardino Valley. Evidently 

 the distribution of this Citellus is limited by the climatic influ- 

 ences of the coast slope, as the species extends over the summit 

 of the pass, and its chief food supply extends much farther west. 



About Palm Springs the species is confined to the rocky 

 mesas bordering the desert, the mouths of canons and the lower 

 slopes of the mountains. It is not a species of the low, open, 



