54 ZOOLOGY. 



surprised one of these little fellows seated and engaged in his favorite occupation, tearing to 

 pieces a pine cone, and surrounded by bushels of chips, indicative of his industry. At such 

 times he utters a short, sharp, solitary bark, something like the chirp of the striped ground 

 squirrel, but louder and harsher. His attitude is the embodiment of grace, and his erect ears, 

 his full, black, brilliant eye, the neatness of his colors — greenish grey above, red below, with a 

 sharply defined black line separating the two — altogether render him one of the prettiest of the 

 genus ; so pretty is he, indeed, that my gun has often refused to do its duty before such a 

 sprightly innocent so entirely in my power. 



1 have several times watched these little fellows while gathering their food. Like the larger 

 pine squirrel, their habit is to go into the tree and cut off and throw down a number of the 

 cones, and then descending to tear them up at leisure. Unlike S.fossor, however, this squirrel 

 has a burrow either under or in fallen logs, where the pine seeds are carried and stored for 

 winter. By this habit, it is allied to the ground squirrel, (Tamias 4:-vittatus,) which is its con- 

 stant associate in the region which it inhabits. 



TAMIAS. 



Striped Ground Squirrels 



TAMIAS TOWNSENDII. 

 Townsend's Striped Squirrel. 



Tamias Townsendii, Bachman, Jour. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila. VIII, I, 1839, 68. 



Bavrd, Gen. Rep. Mammals, 1857, 301. 



Aud & Bach. N. Am. Quad. I, 1849, 159 ; pi. xx. 

 Tamias hindsii, Gray, Annals & Mag. N. H. X, 1842, 264. 

 Tamias cooperii, Baikd, Pr. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phila. VII, April, 1855, 334. 



Sp. Ch. — Larger than T. striatus. Tail, with hairs, nearly or quite as long as the body. Sides of head striped. Above 

 and on the sides rufous brown, with five dark stripes reaching to the tail, the intervals between which are scarcely or but 

 seldom paler than the ground color ; beneath, dull white. Ears dusky brown, hoary posteriorly. Tail bright chestnut 

 beneath, margined with ashy white, within which is a band of black. Length, five to six inches. Hind foot, 1.40 to 1.50. 

 Varies in rather paler colors, ash colored interspaces, and sometimes the back with black hairs interspersed, so as to ob- 

 scure, or nearly conceal, the dorsal stripes. 



TAMIAS QUADRIVITTATUS. 



Missouri Striped Squirrel. 



Sciurus quadrivitlatus, Say, in Long's Exped. R. Mts. II, 1823, 45. 

 Tamias quadrivittaius, Aud. & Bach. N. Am. Quad. I, 1849, 195 ; pi. xxiv. 



Baird, Gen. Rep. Mammals, 1857, 297. 

 Tamias minimus, Bacuman, Jour. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila. VIII, I, 1839, 71. 



Sp. Ch. — Tail, with the hairs, nearly or quite as long as the body. A greyish white stripe along the top of the head, with 

 branches passing above and below the eye. The stripe bordered above and below by darker ones, and separated behind the 

 eye by a dark line. A grey or hoary patch behind the ears. Sides of body deep ferruginous ; back with five about equi- 

 distant dark stripes, nearly black on the posterior part of the body, their intervals forming four greyish white lines of similar 

 dimensions to them. Tail, when flattened out, ferruginous externally, then black, then ferruginous. Body beneath, dirty 

 greyish white. Length, four to five inches. Hind foot, 1.20 inch. 



These little striped squirrels we found in the pine woods from Fort Beading to the Columbia, 

 and I doubt if any day passed during our journey in which they were not seen by some of our 

 party. Their cry is somewhat like that of our eastern species, T. striatus, but not so loud, nor 

 so frequently repeated. In California, their subsistence is derived from the oaks and pines, and 

 from the seeds of the everywhere abundant " manzanita." In northern California and Oregon, 



