92 NORTH A:\rERICAN FAUNA. In... 16. 



elevations tbey seem to feed laii;ely on the nmcli smaller seeds of the 

 Shasta tirs, the cones of which they collect in larye nnnd)eis. These 

 cones are gathered in heaps at the bases of trees, where the sipiirrels 

 live, and are also stored in decayed logs, where they are stntted into 

 all available openings. As 1898, the year of onr visit, was an ' ofl" year' 

 for cones, we were forced, in order to obtain specimens, to take advan- 

 tage of the stores made by these sipiirrels the j^revions year. lu 

 them we found innumerable cones, more or less perfect and with the 

 seeds still untouched, of both Abies shastensis and A. loir'unia. 



Sciurus fossor Peale. Oregon (iray Squirrel; Large Tree S(iuiriel. 



Fairly common in the i)ine forest covering the southern and western 

 basal slopes of Shasta. At different times during the summer these 

 large squirrels were seen in Squaw Creek Valley and between Sisson 

 and Edgewood. On July 13 Vernon Bailey found them common near 

 Bear Creek, between Fall River Valley and Shasta, where the sugar 

 pines begin. They were then <utting ofl" the scales and eating the green 

 seeds of the half-grown cones of sugar pines. 



Sciuropterus alpinus klamathensis Merriam. Klamath Flying S(juirrel. 



The only tlying scjuirrel seen by our party was observed by me in 

 August on a cedar stub near a small stream a couple ot miles below 

 Wagon Camp, but was not secured. There is therefore some uncertainty 

 as to the species. At Sisson I was informed that a boy had a pair alive 

 in a cage, but he left town with them before they could be examined. 



Castor canadensis Kuhl. Beaver. 



Probably not now living in the immediate vicinity of Shasta, although 

 in 1883, according to C. H. Townsend, "a luimber of them occupied 

 unmolested a dam, which they had constructed in a corner of a meadow 

 belonging to Mr. J. II. Sisson." They were ibrmeriy common in Shasta 

 Kiver, where Walter K. Fisher was recently told a few were seen in 

 the winter of 18!)8-1M». 



Aplodontia major Merriam. Aplodontia; Sewellel. 



In making the circuit of Shasta the latter part of July, Vernon 

 Bailey and I discovered a colony of a])lo(loutias in some rank vegeta- 

 tion covering a springy place in Ash Creek Canyon, in the upper part 

 of the Canadian zone. A little later W. K. and R. T. Fisher were sent 

 there and obtained two specimens. About the same time they and 

 W. II. Osgood caught eight in Mud (heek Canyon near the mouth of 

 Clear Creek, at an altitude of nearly 7,000 feet. 



Aplodontias live in wet or damj) ijlaces usually overgrown with rank 

 vegetation, and preferably in springy, sloi»ing ground where some ot 

 their innumerable burrows and sunken runways are kept wet by tlie 

 cold trickling water. As is well known, they cut various plants, com 

 moldy rank or woody kinds, which they gather and carry in bundles 

 to their burrows, or to places near by, where they spread them out to dry. 



