124 
THE OREGON NATURALIST. 
the Cascade and Coast Mountains. 
In the Coast range of mountains they seem 
to descend much lower than in the Cascades, 
and in the fallof 1894 numbers of them sudden- 
ly appeared in some of the towns on Gray’s 
Harbor, in Washington, and they are not un- 
common in the neighborhood of Yaquina Bay 
in Oregon, 
They live in burrows in the ground, each 
one of which bas numerous entrances, which 
are generally connected by runways through 
the grass, and in other ways as will be shown 
herein. 
They are either extremely shy or nocturnal 
in their habits, for although the writer has trap- 
ped a large number of specimens he has never 
had the good fortune to see them abroad in 
daylight. 
The writer’s 
habits of these animals have 
opportunities to observe the 
all been in the 
mountains near to the snow line and therefore 
may conflict somewhat with obseivatisns made 
in other localities. 
When the first warm days of July begin to 
melt away the lingering snow on the mountain 
sides and the rank mountain herbage springs 
MOUNTAIN 
from the sod in its short, rapid growth, the 
Boomers busy themselves cleaning out the 
remains of their last winter’s stores, and piles of 
dried grass and refuse may be seen at the 
mouth of each burrow. 
Then commences the harvest; each worker 
gathering grass, neatly cut in sheaves, and lay- 
ing them in rows on some log or rock to dry, 
carefully turning it every day until properly 
cured, when it is carried away tothe storehouse 
for winter use, 
BOOMERS. 
Then dicoes are built leading water into the 
subterranean galleries. and all is ready for the 
coming winter. When thesnow comes the run- 
ways from one burrow to anotherare kept open 
by connecting tunnels. In the writers est.ma- 
tion these rodents do not become dormant for 
any partofthe year. The summer heing spent 
as I have endeavored to describe; the fill and 
winter in tunneling for roots or other food, and 
the spring in bringing forth their young. 
As to the general appearance of the Boomer 
