OCHOTONID^ 183 



rabbit would wben not alarmed or liurried. Tbe position taken 

 at rest is that shown in onr engraving. I have seen none stand- 

 ing upright. An adult that 1 weighed pulled the scale down to 

 four ounces. Coues says of the Rocky Mountain Pikas that "re- 

 production takes place in May and June, and about four young 

 are produced in a grassy nest." A female Sierra Nevada Pika 

 that I shot August 22nd. was suckling }'oung. The mammcne were 

 six in number, two pairs pectoral, one pair inguineal. 



The voice of Pikas is said to be similar to the bleat of a 

 young lamb; that of the Sierra Nevada Pika is somewhat differ- 

 ent. It may be represented by "eeh" strongly aspirated and is re- 

 peated. It is not loud but may be heard a, hundred yards or more. 

 The animal is difficult to locate by the sound, partly because of 

 a ventriloqual quality of the sound, but more because of the ani- 

 mals resembknce to the rock on which it may be sitting. I have 

 seen them through a field glass eighty or a hundred feet away 

 when I could not distinguish them with the naked eye, yet a charge 

 of fine shot fired at the top of the rock where I knew it sat would 

 get the animal. The color is variable with locality, and protective, 

 being similar to that of the rocks where they live. If the rocks 

 are nearly white so is the animal, and if the rocks are dark the 

 animal is also. The snowfall is heavy in the region inhabited 

 by the Pikas, but the interstices of the rock slides would be free 

 from snow^ and comparatively warm and it is probable that they 

 are active all winter. 



These little mountain dwellers are curious creatures from 

 many points of view. They appear to be the remnant of an an- 

 cient family, distanced in the evolutionary race and crowded into 

 a region difficult for other animals to utiHze. They are peculiar- 

 ly home loving bodies, as is shown by their having acquired the 

 color of particular areas of rock, among which they must have 

 dwelt many generations. Their habits protect them from nearly 

 all predatory animals except weasels. American Pikas are some- 

 times called Little Chief Hares, Straved Rats and Conies. 



