Striped Ground-squirrel 405 



in each. 'The web-worms In these stomachs were, in the great 

 majority of cases, the larvae of Crambus exsiccatus, which is 

 very injurious to corn and grass in Iowa, its work in corn being 

 very often mistaken for that of cut-worms.' In conclusion it 

 is stated that 'the insects which the Squirrels feed on are 

 almost exclusively injurious species, chief among which seem 

 to be cut-worms, web-worms, and grasshoppers. As grass, 

 clover, and other green stuff has been abundant wherever the 

 Squirrels were taken, and as their stomachs were often gorged 

 with insects that must have given them trouble to catch, it 

 would seem that they prefer the latter food.' "^ 



The only available record of the Ground-squirrel eating 

 reptiles is contributed by Bailey: "I once shot a Spermophile 

 [he says***] as it was sitting up eating something that it held in 

 its paws. On picking it up a partly devoured lizard {Eumeces 

 fasciatus) was found, and several joints of the lizard's tail were 

 in the Spermophile's cheek pouches." 



The step from reptile to bird is greater to the layman 

 than it is to the naturalist or the Gopher. H. G. Smith, of 

 Denver, writes:" "I have found the feathers of the shore- 

 lark (Otocoris alpestris arenicola) about the entrance to the 

 burrows on one or two occasions, but whether killed by the 

 Squirrel or not I do not know. * ^i^ * The shore-lark 

 evidently regards them as enemies, for I have often seen them 

 try to drive the Spermophiles from the locality of their nests, 

 and have found the eggs of the species, as well as those of the 

 lark-bunting {C alamos piza melanocorys), destroyed, as I sup- 

 pose, by this Spermophile." 



In the July of 1883 Miller Christy and I saw a Striped- 

 gopher climb twice up a low, bushy spruce tree in pursuit 

 of a vesper sparrow that was perched on top. Again in 

 1887 Christy wrote me from Shoal Lake: "May 18, I saw 

 a kingbird chasing a Gopher (Striped) along the ground for 

 some yards till it got into its hole. The bird kept at the busi- 

 ness for (I should think) half a minute." 



'Bull. Iowa Exp. Station, 1889, No. 6, p. 242. ^° Loc. cit., p. 39. 



" Loc. cit., p. 38. 



