NOTES 219 



cots, and on top of these was a camp mattress. The cots and 

 mattress were taken out of doors and set up (for we were out- 

 door sleepers) and the writer promptly turned in. I had no 

 sooner become quiet than I heard a chorus of tiny squeaks 

 coming from inside the mattress, and an examination revealed 

 a warm nest in the padding containing eight tiny, naked, blind 

 creatures whose eyes were not yet opened. Supposing them 

 to be young mice they were ruthlessly disposed of, as mice 

 usually are, and I prepared to resume my slumbers. 



I was aroused a few minutes later by my friend (who had 

 not yet retired) calling me softly to hurry into the cabin, and 

 once there a sight met my eyes that I will long remember. 



Under where the cots had been piled was a knothole in the 

 floor; this, however was not directly under the position of the 

 nest, which was rather toward one side of the mattress but more 

 to the other side of the space which had been covered by the 

 cots and both were well toward one end of the latter. 

 Emerging from this hole was the mother of the little ones 

 we had just assassinated, but instead of a mouse, it proved 

 to be a large, handsome Pale Striped Ground Squirrel {Citellus 

 tridecemlineatus pallidas). As this species is, to the best of my 

 knowledge, strictly diurnal, and the time was between 10 and 

 ii p. m., it seems very probable that the animal had been 

 frightened from the nest by our entrance and was now returning. 



Upon reaching the floor she seemed greatly confused, but 

 after some hesitation she ran to the place from which she had 

 probably been in the habit of climbing up the frames of the 

 cots to the nest. Here she stood upon her hind legs and fran- 

 tically pawed the air, apparently trying to locate the missing 

 frames. Then she ran back to the hole and repeated the entire 

 performance. She would stand straight up on her hind legs, 

 as straight as a man could stand, and after turning round and 

 round, would fall backward, only to jump up and run about 

 in various sized circles in a vain endeavor to locate her missing 

 family. This performance was continued without a pause for 

 fully fifteen minutes, during which time her excitement and 

 confusion visibly increased, and although we were both within 

 arm's length of her and spoke frequently in an undertone, she 

 did not pay the slightest attention to us. Several times she 

 jumped high in the air from a standing position and falling 



