I40 Field Museum or Natural History — Zoology, Vol. XL 



stripe of black, the ends of the hairs forming the fringe buffy white; 



a pale ring around the eye. 

 Measurements — Total length, 10.75 i^- (^73 iTini.); tail vertebrse, 4 in. 



(loi mm.); hind foot, 1.37 in. (35 mm.). 



The Striped Prairie Squirrel, Striped Gopher, or Thir teen-lined 

 Spermophile, as it has been variously called, is common in the prairie 

 regions, and large open fields nearly throughout Illinois and in southern 

 Wisconsin, and scattered colonies are occasionally found further north. 

 Jackson records it from the vicinity of Iron River, Bayfield County, in 

 the extreme northern part of the state. It is diiunal and gregarious, 

 and during the summer months its tremulous whistle is often to be 

 heard and the little animal seen sitting upright or running rapidly 

 through the grass, but rarely far from its burrow. 



It has a bad reputation among farmers, which is not altogether 

 undeserved, on account of the habit of pulling up and eating newly 

 planted corn and other grains and seeds; but, on the other hand, it must 

 be given credit for destroying great quantities of beetles, caterpillars, 

 grasshoppers and other injurious insects. It must be admitted, how- 

 ever, that it cannot be considered of benefit to the agriculturist. Mr. 

 Vernon Bailey says, "Undoubtedly the good which the Striped Sper- 

 mophiles do by destroying insects and seeds of noxious weeds is of no 

 small importance ; but it is doubtful if it is sufficient to offset the damage 

 perpetrated by them in the grain fields. In many localities it is im- 

 possible to raise a full field of corn without first killing the spermophiles. 

 As soon as the corn is planted they begin to dig up the seed, but do most 

 mischief after the corn begins to come up and until a week or ten days 

 old, or until all the nutriment is drawn from the grain. They dig 

 down by the side of the stalk and eat the swollen, starchy grain, of 

 which they seem very fond, leaving the stalks to die. As a single 

 spermophile will dig up many hills of corn in a day and continue digging 

 for nearly two weeks, it is not difficult to see that serious damage is 

 done where they are numerous, averaging as they often do four or five 

 to an acre. Large fields of corn are sometimes entirely destroyed by 

 them and have to be planted over several times. A great deal of 

 wheat, oats, barley and rye is taken in the same way, making it neces- 

 sary to sow an extra amount of seed. Even this means is not effectual 

 and frequently fields of sowed grain suffer materially from their attacks. 

 As the small grains begin to fill, soon after blossoming, the spennophiles 

 cut down the stalks and eat the ovules, and in order to find the best 

 heads they cut down a great deal more than they can eat. As the 

 grain becomes hard they carry large stores of it into their burrows to 

 be eaten at leisure, probably when they awake from their winter's sleep. 



