SCIURID.y. 65 



Subgenus Otospermophilus. (Ear — spermophile. ) 

 Ears large; tail nearly as long- as head and body, full 

 haired; pelage mottled; audita! bullae rather small, with large and 

 well rimmed external orifices; skull comparatively long and nar- 

 row. 



Citellus beecheyi Richardson. (For Captain F. W. 

 Beechey. ) 



CALIFORNIA GROUND SQUIRREL. 



Size large; tail long- and comparatively bushy; ears large; 

 back and sides thickly sprinkled with indistinct small whitish or 

 pale brown spots on a sepia or drab ground, each spot bordered 

 behind with dusky, the spots with a tendency to coalesce in irregu- 

 lar bars; a whitish patch on the sides of tlie neck, commencing 

 behind the ears and prolonged across the shoulders in a stripe 

 ending on the upper part of the side, these neck patches usually 

 distinct and separated from each other by a pointed extension of 

 the color of the back ; top of head bistre grizzled with whitish ; 

 eyelids grayish buff or white; feet, sides of head and sometimes 

 the face brownish gray; inner (concave) surface of ears and 

 back border of outer surface yellowish gray, remainder of ears 

 black; below brownish white or grayish; tail grizzled brown, the 

 hairs having two or three dull black rings and the remainder, in- 

 cluding base and tip yellowish white, the under surface of tad 

 grayer than the upper side. Young; paler; white neck patches 

 distinct; spots on sides and back dim. 



Length about 415 mm. (16.33 inches) ; tad vertebrcT 170 

 (6.70) ; hind foot 55 (2.15) ; ear from crown 20 (.80). 



Type locality, California, probably Monterey, possibly San 

 Diego. 



California Ground Squirrels are abundant in nearly all parts 

 of central and southern California, frequenting open valleys, brush 

 and rocky hillsides alike ; any sort of place that will supply abund- 

 ant food wdll answer, but the borders of open ground where they 

 can retreat to the cover of brush or rocks is preferred. They are 



