290 Field Columbian Museum — Zoology, Vol. III. 



Citellus nelsoni. 



Citellus nelsoni Merr., Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., 1893, p. 129. 

 Elliot, Syn. X. Am. Mamm., 1901, p. 87. 



5 Specimens from Rose Station, Fort Tejon. 



This species inhabits the open, level, grassy plain of the 

 San Joaquin Valley. A considerable number was seen near the 

 head of the valley in grain-fields, about five miles beyond the. 

 northern base of the Tehachapi Mountains. In this locality 

 they were found inhabiting burrows dug in the hard adobe floor 

 of the valley, and were to be seen out only early or late, being 

 considerable less diurnal than C. leucunts. On account of the 

 open character of the plain inhabited by this squirrel, it is much 

 more protectively colored, the white dorsal stripes and the 

 white of the under side of the tail being scarcely conspicuous 

 on the pale yellowish background of the body. They were not 

 found anvwhere closer than four miles to the foothills surround- 

 ing the valley, and it is probable that they do not leave the 

 open valley. 



Citellus variegatus fisheri. 



Citellus v. fisheri Merr., Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., 1S93, p. 133. 

 Elliot, Syn. N. Am. Mamm., 1901, p. 88. 



12 Specimens: 1 Oro Grande, 2 Hot Springs, Mt. Whitney; 

 3 Lone Pine, 6 Fort Tejon, at the mouth of Canada de las Uvas. 



"This rock-squirrel was found on both slopes of the Sierras, 

 as high as 8,000 feet, or the upper limit of the black pine, down 

 to the floor of the O.wens Valley and as far east as the Coso 

 Valley. In the Colorado Desert it was seen on the eastern flank 

 of the San Jacinto Mountains, and farther north in the Mohave 

 Desert on the eastern slope of the San Bernardino Mountains. 

 About Fort Tejon and the head of the San Joaquin Valley they 

 were abundant in the white-oaks, and on the mountains as high 

 as 6,000 feet, but do not extend farther east than the base of the 

 foothills." 



There is a considerable variation in the color of Mr. Heller's 

 specimens, some being nearly black between the shoulders, like 

 S. v. douglasi. These are from Oro Grande and Fort Tejon. 

 Again, one from Lone Pine is of such a pale gray that if the 

 others from the same locality agreed with it in color, there would be 

 little hesitation in regarding it as entitled to subspecific rank, but 

 the other examples are an unusually deep rich brown, which proves 

 that the gray specimen exhibits merely an individual variation. 



