FIELD BOOK OF MAMMALS 



from Mount Tallac south to Mammoth Pass; altitudinal 

 range, 7,800 to 12,800 feet." (Howell) 



Mount Whitney Pika. — Ochotona schisticeps alhata (Grinnell). 

 Paler than muiri, which it most closely resembles ; the palest 

 of the American Pikas; total length, 7.3 inches; hind foot, 

 1.2 inches. Found in "Southern part of the high Sierra 

 Nevada, from Kearsarge Pass south to the headwaters of 

 the Tule and Kern Rivers; altitudinal range from about 

 8,500 to 13,000 feet." (Howell) 



White Mountain Pika. — Ochotona schisticeps sheltoni Grinnell. 

 Intermediate in color between typical schisticeps and muiri, 

 size of taylori; total length, 7 inches; hind foot, i.i inches. 

 Found in "The White Mountains of California and Nevada 

 (8,000 to 13,000 feet altitude)." (Howell) 



Beaver Mountains Pika. — Ochotona schisticeps cinnamomea 

 (Allen). 

 Smaller than typical schisticeps (total length, 7.5 inches; 

 hind foot, 1.14 inches); and paler on face, head, and nape 

 (summer); more cinnamon on sides. Found in "Beaver 

 Range, Utah, and Toyabe Mountains, Nevada; altitudinal 

 range from 8,000 to 1 1,000 feet." (Howell) 



Parawan Mountains Pika. — Ochotona schisticeps fuscipes 

 Howell. 

 Like typical schisticeps (summer) but with darker soles and 

 palms; total length, 8 inches; hind foot, 1.2 inches. Known 

 only from type locality, Brian Head, Parawan Mountains, 

 Iron County, Utah. 



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The Pikas are easily identified by their form — appearance 

 that of a diminutive tailless Rabbit — their peculiar call, and 

 by the fact that they make their home in the great masses 

 of loose slide-rock. Sometimes an animal is seen away from 

 the rock (I have known of one taking up an abode in the 

 slab-pile of an old sawmill), but it is typically a creature of the 

 piled-up debris of weathered cliffs, where sun and frost have 

 cracked off blocks and slabs of all sizes. Such piles are to be 

 found in greatest abundance in the upper elevations of the 

 Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast ranges, and usually 

 the Pika is to be seen only at high elevations. There are 

 exceptions to this rule, however, and Pikas are found on the 

 Fraser River of British Columbia at elevations of a few 

 hundred feet, and along the western slopes of the Cascades of 

 Oregon as low as 900 feet altitude. 



Pikas occur in Asia, but the family is northern in its distri- 

 bution and does not range out of the northern part of the 

 Northern Hemisphere. 



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