122 STOKTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



SCIURUS DOUGLASII CASCADENSIS ALLEN 

 CASCADE SQUIRREL; YELLOW-BELLIED CHICKAREE 



Soiurus douglasii cascadensis Allen, Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. BulL 10 : 277, 1898. 



Type. Collected on Mount Hood (near timber line on west slope), Oreg. 



General characters. Similar to douglasn, but lower parts yellow instead of 

 orange, and long tail hairs tipped with white instead of orange. Summer 

 pelage, upper parts dark brownish gray, with black stripe along each side and 

 black ear tufts ; tail dark gray, rusty above, with white edgings and tip beyond 

 obscure dusky zone and subterminal area of black; lower parts and feet pale 

 orange or yellow. Winter pelage, often worn through June; upper parts dark 

 gray with rusty back and top of tail, and obscure black side stripes ; tail much 

 flattened and edged with white ; top of feet gray ; lower parts salmon or buffy, 

 clouded with gray or dusky. 



Measurements of type- Total length, 320 mm ; tail, 130 ; foot, 50 ; ear, 20. 



Distribution and habitat. These Cascade squirrels inhabit the 

 whole Cascade Range from Mount Hood south through the Umpqua, 

 Rogue River, Siskiyou, and Trinity Mountains, and down the coast 

 ranges of northwest California, grading into douglasii on the west 

 and albolinibatus on the east of the Cascades (fig. 20). They occupy 

 the pine, spruce, and hemlock forests of practically the whole Cas- 

 cade Range in Oregon, but as Allen pointed out, they show every 

 intergradation between the dark and rich douglasii and the paler 

 albolimbatus, and a definite border to their range cannot be satis- 

 factorily given. They range from near timber line down to the 

 edges of the valleys. 



General habits. These, like all of their group, are tree squirrels, 

 and are never found far from the edges of the forest, although often 

 coming to the ground and scampering over logs and rocks and along 

 fences from tree to tree, or from grove to grove. Their homes are in 

 hollow trees, or where these are not available, in nests of leaves, 

 twigs, and moss, which they construct among the branches of ever- 

 greens. During the spring they are silent and shy, and therefore 

 inconspicuous ; but late in June after the young are out of the nests, 

 the squirrels become noisy and are much in evidence. During the 

 busy season of autumn, while storing their winter supply of food, 

 they are most energetic and vigorous in their work, putting in long 

 days, and often scolding and fighting to hold their feeding and 

 storing grounds. 



Breeding habits. The 4 to 6 or 7 young are born in early sum- 

 mer and in July begin to leave the nests as half-grown squirrels. 

 It seems doubtful if more than one litter^ of young is raised in a 

 season, as the time is all too short for raising the litter and gather- 



8 The writer finds no character on which to separate this form from Sciurus douglasii 

 mollipilosus Aud. and Bach., 1841, from the coast section of northern California. Rather 

 than use that name, however, which is likely to fall before the older name 8. lanuginosus 

 Bachman, 1838, when material is obtained from the type locality, Fort McLaughlin, on 

 Hunter Island, north of Vancouver Island, in British Columbia the Oregon name casca- 

 densis is used provisionally until this group of squirrels can be thoroughly revised in the 

 light of the great amount of material at present available. The type of lanuginosus in the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia is an albino and gives no clue to specific 

 characters, and the status of the name will not be known until specimens are collected at 

 the type locality. Rather than add further confusion by any provisional change of name, 

 Allen is here followed in his use of cascadensis for the squirrel of the Cascade Mountains 

 in Oregon. 



