Striped Ground-squirrel 407 



occasion to kill and eat wife or brother, mother or child, when 

 other opportunity is lacking to glut its appetite for the living 

 flesh and blood. Thus in spite of the strictly herbivorous teeth 

 with which it is endowed it is a logical presentation of flesh- 

 eating pushed to the unbridled conclusion. 



Vernon Bailey gives ^^ this summary of his studies on its 

 food habits: 



"Eighty stomachs and eleven cheek pouches were col- 

 lected and their contents carefully examined. Since the stom- 

 achs were taken from specimens collected at various dates, 

 ranging from May 19 to August 31, and over an extent of 

 country including Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, Wyo- 

 ming, Kansas, and Texas, it may be reasonably inferred that 

 the average summer diet of the species is represented. Follow- 

 ing is a list of the food components found in the stomachs: 



ANIMAL VEGETABLE 



Grasshoppers Oats 



Crickets Wheat 



Caterpillars (larvae of Pig-weed (Chenopodium) 



Lepidoptera) Bindweed seeds (Polygonum) 



Beetles Wild sunflower seeds {Helian- 

 Ants thus) 



A small cocoon Night shade berries {Solarium) 



Insects' eggs Cactus fruit {Qpuntia) 



Spermophile hairs Roots 



Feathers of small birds Herbage" 



A surprising and delightful discretion is displayed by this stor- 

 animal in its selection of food for storage. // never attempts to 

 store food that will spoil. 



On this point Bailey writes:'" ''The following tables show 

 that the contents of the cheek pouches differ widely from those 

 of the stomachs, many things being eaten that are never stowed 

 away in the pouches. For instance, more than half of the 



» Rep. Pr. Grd. Squirrels U. S. Dep. Agr., 1893, Bull. 4, p. 43- 

 " Loc. cit., p. 45. 



