13S M( rfidiii — N('}v (jroiiiKl S(pilrrch. 



patches whitish, injt sharply defined; facial stripes pale; ear 

 stripes indistinct ; legs and feet gray. Tail : upper surface 

 hoary (rarel}^ yellowish), becoming black toward the tip (the 

 individual hairs buffy gray sub-basally, then black, and broadly 

 tipped with pale buffy gray or yellowish) ; under surface, pale 

 buft'y fulvous, bordered and broadl}^ tip[)ed with black, broadly 

 edged laterally with pale buffy. 



Summer Pelage : Dorsal dai'k stripes l)right ferruginous ; facial 

 stripes strengthened by dull rusty ; flanks bright fulvous, the 

 fulvous reaching forward over shoulders to sides of neck. 



Cranial Characters. — Skull similar in size and general appear- 

 ance to that of T. minimus pictus, but with longer nasals and 

 nasal branches of premaxillaries. The length of the nasals 

 equals or exceeds the combined length of the basioccipital and 

 basisphenoid. In minimus the nasals fall considerably short of 

 this measurement.''^ 



General Remarks. — The Alpine chipmunk is one of the two 

 smallest chipmunks known, the other being the Sage Plains 

 species (T. minimus), which it resembles in general appearance, 

 except in the full summer pelage. In all pelages it may be dis- 

 tinguished from minim.us liy the tail, which is hoary above 

 (rarely yellowish) ; is broader and more l)ushy, and has the 

 lilack terminal part much longer. The outer pair of white dorsal 

 stripes also are much broader, as in speciosus. In spring and 

 early summer, before the post-breeding molt, the animal is very 

 much paler than the palest specimens of minimus 2'>icfus. In 

 midsumer pelage, on the other hand, the sides and dark stripes 

 are deeper ferruginous than ever seen in the brightest summer 

 specimens of minimus pictus or even m.iaimus consobrinus, and in 

 high-colored individuals even the inner pair of light stripes are 

 sometimes obscured by rusty. 



Geographic Distribution. — This beautiful little chi[>munk is re- 

 stricted, so far as known, to the alpine sunnnits of the High 

 Sierra, where it lives among rocks at timber-line, ranging a little 

 al>ove and a little below the ui)])er limit of tree growth. Thus 

 the haunts of the alpine chi])munk are the same as those of the 

 pika {Lagovips), the alpine marmot {Arciomys jiari venter), and 

 the mountain sheep {Ovis canadensis). No mammal ranges 

 higher. Sixty specimens were obtained liy the Death Valley 

 Expedition. 



*Tlus has been verified in 100 skulls, 50 of al^iimis and 50 of Diinhniifi 

 and subspecies. 



