50 WILD ANIMALS OF GLACIER NATIONAL PARK. 



plants, or chasing grasshoppers and crickets, which form an im- 

 portant i)art of their summer food. Farther out among the wheat 

 fields they gather from far and near and lay a heavy tribute on the 

 harvest of grain, but in the park they do^ little damage and are an 

 ever-present source of interest. 



The young are born early in May, and before the end of the month 

 they are out gathering food and playing about the burrows in family 

 parties usually of four to six. By the first of September the young 

 are nearly full grown and have accumulated a- sufficient stock of fat 

 to carry them through the winter. With the first cold weather all 

 disappear in their underground nests, where they sleep soundly until 

 the warm days of early spring return. The nest burrows are usually 

 simple and not very extensive, so that badgers dig out great num- 

 bers of the squirrels all through the summer, and even after they 

 have hibernated, until the ground becomes well frozen. 



Striped Ground Squirrel.: ClteUus tridecemlineatus pallidus 

 (Allen). — The pale, western form of the 13-lined ground squirrel may 

 usually be recognized by the parallel lines of dark brown on a ground 

 color of buff over the upperparts. They are slender, almost weasel- 

 like, animals, with short ears and slightly bushy tails. So protec- 

 tively colored are they that in the prairie grass they are rarely seen, 

 but their shrill bubbling trill is often heard along the roadsides. 



These squirrels also are prairie dwellers and come into the Glacier 

 Park only in a few open spots along the eastern border. In 1895 a 

 fev/ were found at the lower end of St. Mary Lake, and others along 

 the railroad at the southern edge of the park in open spaces nearly 

 to the summit of the range. They were reported in the Swiftcurrent 

 Valley between Sherburne and McDermott Lakes, and conditions are 

 favorable for them in the Belly River valley well into the park. 



In habits they are sliy and secretive, keeping inuch under the cover 

 of the prairie grasses and low vegetation, and even the doorways of 

 their burrows are often well hidden. 



Their food consists largely of seeds, Avith some green vegetation, 

 and usually a larger proportion of insects than with most groimd 

 squirrels. Their regular cycle of habits — hibernating through the 

 long winter, breeding early in spring, caring for the young, and 

 storing up a winter's supply of fat — is similar to that of many other 

 species. In places where they are mnnerous they do much damage 

 in the grain fields, but here on the western border of their range 

 they are so scarce and inconspicuous that they are not even much 

 of a feature of interest, except to the field naturalist, who is always 

 looking for the rarer kinds of animal life. 



Glacier IIoauy ]Mar:mot: 'Marmot a caligata nivaria Howell. — 

 The great gray mountain marmots are about twice the size of the 



