The Ifammalia of the Vicinity of Cincinnati. 305 



28. Spermophilus tridecimlineatus,* Audubon and Bachman. — 

 Striped Gopher. — Identified in the summer of 1862, by Dr. R. M. 

 Bj^rnes, near Middletown, Butler count}^ Ohio, where it inhabited a 

 small tract of original prairie in considerable numbers. Dr. Byrnes 

 informs me that the several specimens taken by himself and others, 

 were obtained by filling their burrows with water and capturing them 

 as they came out. 



Several specimens " planted" by Mr. Dury near Avondale a few 

 years since, did well, he informs me, for a tvhile, but were finally de- 

 stro3^ed by cats. 



The experience of the agriculturists about Tuckerton, N. J., where 

 a single pair of an allied species [8. franklini)., was accidentally in- 

 troduced in 1867, does not speak in favor of their naturalization here 

 or elsewhere. " So prolific were they that the descendants of this single 

 pair during the next ten years had spread over an extent of countrj^ 

 thirteen miles in length and of indefinite breadth, in such numbers as 

 to render them a farm pest by reason of their fondness for young 

 poultry and the numerous burrows they made in the fields. f The 

 present records of 8. tridecimlineatus are its onl}^ ones in Ohio, with 

 the exception of that of Prof. Kirtland, who referred to it as found 

 only in the northwestern parts of the State, " and there not very 

 common. '^t 



29. Arctomys monax, Schreber. — Woodchuck ; Ground Hog. — Not 

 very rare in this vicinit}^ though it can not be classed as common ; 

 makes its burrows in steep hillsides and the bluff's bordering our 

 smaller streams, affecting especially the southern exposures. 



Numerous remains recovered from the Madisonville ancient cemetery. 



The fact that this species is to some extent arboreal in its habits 

 seems to have been overlooked by writers generally. I have myself had 

 the pleasure of witnessing one descend the perpendicular trunk of a 

 large sugar maple, head first, and make immediately for its burrow 

 situated about ten feet distant in the face of a bluff*; when first noticed 



- * Since the present article has been in type, I have received, through the kindness of 

 Dr. J. M. Wheaton. of Columbus, O., proof sheets of Dr. A. W. Bravton's forthcoming Re- 

 port on the Mammalia of Ohio (Ohio Geol. Survey, iv.), in which 1 find myself g-iven as 

 authority for the occurrence of Spermophilus franklini in this State. This is an error for 

 which I am personally and solely responsible, having misinterpreted Dr. Byrnes' descrip- 

 tion of the animal at the time of sending the note to Dr. Brayton. Subsequent! v a more 

 detailed description from Dr. Byrnes revealed the fact that the animal was S. tridecimU- 

 neatus, but by some oversight on my part, Dr. Brayton was never notified of the correction; 

 his reinarks on S. franklini, therefore, so far as they relate to Ohio, should be referred to 

 S. tridecimlineatus. 



T Vide *' Monographs of North American Rodentia," by Coues and Allen, pp. 883-884. 

 X Second Annual Report on the Geological Survey of the State of Ohio, 1838, p. 177. 



