1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 115 



There are specimens from, Pine Creek, near Cornucopia, near 

 Anthony, Forks of Imnaha, Crescent Peak in the Wallowa Moun- 

 tains, Aneroid Lake, Bourne, near Austin, Strawberry Butte, and 

 Strawberry Lake. Others reported in the Wallowa and Baker 

 ranges undoubtedly belong to- the same species (fig. 18). Ex- 

 tensive masses of broken rock on the mountain slopes, sometimes the 

 talus from high cliffs, sometimes old moraines or washed-out rock 

 beds are their usual homes; but always there must be a safe depth 

 under the surface of the rocky mass to afford cover and protection. 

 Rarely, if ever, are they found beyond the cover of their rocky 

 strongholds. 



General habits. So perfectly do these little gray bodies harmonize 

 with the broken rocks among which they live that they are rarely 

 seen until their familiar call note, a slow nasal camp, or amp, is 

 squeaked from the rock slide. Even then one's eyes may fail to 

 detect the form until the head is turned, the ears raised for another 

 amp, or some other motion catches the eye. Although gentle and 

 timid they have much curiosity and cannot refrain from peeping at 

 one from one point and then another; and if the observer has 

 patience the animals usually come closer and closer until often good 

 photographs can be obtained. The writer has had them within 

 4 feet of the camera, but could not change the focal distance before 

 they were gone. Their furry soles make no sound on the rocks and 

 never miss their footing, and but for their shrill little voices few 

 people would ever know of their presence. 



Their busiest, and perhaps most noisy season, is during hay- 

 gathering time late in summer, especially just before a rain or snow- 

 storm, when they work with frantic haste and energy. 



Breeding habits. On the north slope of Strawberry Butte, July 

 10, 1915, Jewett collected 2 females that contained 4 foetuses each, 

 and on the same date collected a half -grown young. This may mean 

 that 2 litters are raised in a season, but more probably that the 

 breeding season is irregular and that the young of the previous year 

 do not breed so early as do the more fully adult females. 



Food habits. Like all of the family they are great storers, and 

 their winter food is better known than the summer, as the well-cured 

 plants in their stacks of winter hay are as easily recognized as in the 

 herbarium. Usually the plants stored include all of the species 

 within easy reach of the home rock-slide, and a few feet beyond its 

 margins grasses, small herbaceous plants, weeds, and bushes. 



On the side; of Crescent Peak, above Aneroid Lake in the Wal- 

 lowa Mountains, in mid-September 1897, they were found up to 

 500 feet above timber line, where they were still working about, 

 digging out a few little plants that stuck up through newly fallen 

 snow and adding them to already full larders in dry cavities under 

 the rocks. The previous year up to July 13, on Strawberry Butte, 

 they had not begun to store their winter's hay, and only the sticks 

 and refuse of the previous winter's stacks were to be found. In the 

 early part of August 1915, near Bourne, in the Baker Range, Jewett 

 found them with small stores largely composed of chokeberry leaves. 



