376 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



VOICE Most of the Ground-squirrels are noted for the great 



variety of the sounds they produce, but this is the musician of 

 the family. It utters the same calls as the others, but expresses 

 them in a fine, clear whistle. Its ordinary note heard in the 

 brushwood is in a high degree musical, resembling the voice 

 of some of our fine bird-singers, and has won for the species 

 the names of 'Whistling Gopher' and 'Musical Ground- 

 squirrel.' 



Both sexes are supposed to make these sounds, but the 

 point is not settled. 



DEN The den is made in a low, brushy bank; in style it is 



"usually deeper than that of the Striped Spermophile, but 

 otherwise similar to it" (Kennicott*). Jillson says^ that "when 

 not frightened into their holes they generally plug them up with 

 dirt, but always leave them open when out." This habit has 

 not been recorded by any other observer. 



Dr. C. E. McChesney, of Fort Sisseton, N. D., credits^ 

 the species with nesting in a hollow tree. 



MATING The slight evidence at hand would set the mating season 



about the middle or third week of May, fully a month later 

 than with the Yellow Ground-squirrel. 



Kennicott is of the opinion that the species pairs, but that 

 the male early abandons the female and leads a solitary, roving 

 life during the summer. Edwin Hollis says ^ of those that he 

 saw at Touchwood Hills, Sask. : " Pairs of old ones and family 

 seem to live together." 



ING 



BREED- At Carberry, June 15, 1892, I got a female that carried 



6 well-developed unborn young. A female in the New York 

 Zoological Park produced 4 young on June 8, 1905. When 

 I examined them on June 20, they were still blind, helpless, and 

 nearly naked. Only the slightest beginning of hair was to be 



*Quad. 111., 1857, P- 8o- 



' Herrick's Mam. Minn., 1892, p. 168. 



* Mam. Ft. Sisseton, Dak., 1878, p. 216. 



' Collecting Small Mam. in N. W. T. Canada. Zoologist, August 15, 1902, p. 297. 



