MAMMALS. 45 



occasions one ma}^ be heard to make a lon<>; shi'ill scjueak or whistling 

 note, but this is so rare that few people ever notice it. 



The five or six young- are [)orn in May or June and by August are 

 well grown and caring for themsehes. Like the ground scjuirrels 

 antl unlike the chipmunks, they become extremely fat during the 

 summer, and before the cold weather begins they enter their warm 

 underground* nests, where apparently they hibernate for the long 

 winter period, or from September to April. Just when the winter's 

 stores of seeds and grain are eaten is not definitely known, but they 

 are i)r()bably intended to tide the sleepers over the beginning and 

 end of their hil)ernation period, when food is scarce or they are too 

 sleepy to go after it. 



Columbia Ground Squirrel : Cltellus columhlarhus (Ord). — Colum- 

 bia ground squirrels, or, as often called, picket pins, and, incorrectly, 

 gophers, are in many places in the park the most abundant and con- 

 spicuous mammals to be found. They are among the largest of the 

 ground squirrels. An unusually large old male at Many Glacier 

 weighed 1|- pounds, and while not fat, was nearly twice as heavy as 

 some of the. others taken at the same place. They have short legs, 

 short bushy tails, and sliort ears, and in every respect are adapted to 

 their mode of life on the surface and under the ground. Even their 

 coarsely mottled gray coats, with the reddish-brown nose and throat, 

 lowerparts, and hams, are protectively imitative of the colors of the 

 ground. 



They occupy practically all of the open country along the lower 

 borders of the park and throughout the Hudsonian Zone, but do not 

 enter the heavily timbered areas. At Glacier Station they were com- 

 mon along the creek valleys, and in Swift current Valley they ?re 

 abundant from the Sherburne Lakes w^est to McDermott Lake, and 

 thence almost continuousl}^ through the open slopes and burnt strips 

 up to Iceberg Lake and Swiftcurrent Pass. None were seen in the 

 Kennedy or Belly River valley's, but in the Waterton Lake valley 

 they are abundant, and also in the high country around 'Boundary 

 Peak, over Kootenai Pass, on Flat Top Mountain, at Granite Park, 

 Piegan Pass, Gunsight Lake and Pass, and around the Blackfeet 

 Glacier. On the west slope I found old burrows on the western arm 

 of Stanton Mountain, and collected specimens on the high ridge just 

 south of Nyack near the southern line of the park. In the North 

 Fork Valley they were common from Camas Creek to Big Prairie, 

 on April 15, 1918, but were not j^et out on Round Prairie. The 

 open slopes and little parks and meadows of the Hudsonian Zone 

 are their favorite range in this region, and here they become very 

 numerous and are generally conspicuous and noisy in the open spaces 

 along the trails. Sometimes a dozen or more may be seen running 



