BILITY 



398 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



shear, and are easily cleared again by their owner. This is 

 supported by the fact that wherever you find a tract of 

 dry virgin prairie left, you are sure to find it populated still by 

 the Striped species, while the Yellow alone is found in the 

 ploughed fields. 



sociA- Speaking of its habits in Illinois, Kennicott says:^ "It 



is naturally gregarious, and though never observed living in 

 such great companies as the Prairie-dog, twenty, or sometimes 

 even fifty or a hundred, may be found within the area of an 

 acre, two burrows being frequently within a few feet of each 

 other, though one is never inhabited by more than a pair.'* 

 This does not agree with my own observations. I should rather 

 call it a solitary species, for I never saw one heeding another, 

 except in the breeding season, and those I kept in captivity 

 took no notice of each other except to fight. In one sense the 

 species may be slightly gregarious, but I should say not at all 

 sociable. 



SPRING The Striped Ground-squirrel is usually two weeks behind 



ADVENT , X7 1, . . • • • 1 



the Yellow one in its spring appearance; it is rarely seen in 

 numbers until the end of April, but around Carberry begins to 

 appear about April 20. 



In the backward season of 1904 it had not appeared in 

 force when I went East on May i. Again, in the very early 

 season of 1905 Francis Dickie wrote me from Carberry that the 

 first Striped-gopher was noticed April i. At MacDonald, J.S. 

 Charleson noted its first appearance on March 27. 



MATING The mating season sets in at once and the males may be 



seen chasing the females from burrow to burrow over the 

 prairie. Kennicott says that in Illinois they pair, but the male 

 deserts the female just before the young are born, and leads a 

 solitary roving life all summer, "digging a temporary burrow 

 or occupying a deserted one for a few days wherever he may 

 take up his abode." * 



' Quad. 111., 1857, pp. 75-6. *Loc. cit., p. 76. 



