124 KOETH AMEEICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



gray, with black stripe obscured; tail more frosted along sides and at tip; 

 lower parts white ; sides of feet buffy. 



Measurements. Total length, 340 mm; tail, 142; foot, 53; ear (dry), 21. 

 Weight: 218 to 299 g (7% to 8% ounces). (Grinnell and Storer, 1924, p. 203.) 



Distribution and habitat. This chickaree extends throughout the 

 whole length of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and northward to 

 Mount Shasta, and the Klamath and Warner Mountain country in 

 Oregon, and east of the Cascades to the Paulina, Maury, and southern 

 part of the Blue Mountains south of the John Day River (fig. 20). 

 Along the east base of the Cascades they grade into cascadensis, but 

 in the Blue Mountains they are sharply distinct from Sciurus hud- 

 sonicus richardsoni, which occurs north of the upper John Day 

 Eiver. They occupy both Canadian and Transition Zones and in 

 places extend into the Hudsonian where forest trees are sufficiently 

 large and numerous to furnish homes and food. Their greatest 

 abundance is in the spruce, fir, and lodgepole pine forests, where con- 

 ditions seem most favorable for protection and an ample food supply. 



General habits. These mountain squirrels differ in habits from 

 other forms of the douglasii group only in adaptation to higher 

 country and more arid climate. They occupy the coniferous forests 

 and climb to the tops of the tallest trees, even the giant sequoias, 

 from which they cut the cones to be gathered and stored for food. 

 At times they are shy and silent and rarely seen, but again noisy 

 and conspicuous. Nelson says that in districts where they are com- 

 mon they may be heard at all hours of the day, but especially early 

 in the morning. Their common note is a trilling or bubbling noise 

 which is liquid and musical in effect and difficult to locate. It it 

 more like the song of some strange bird than the note of a mammal. 



John Muir has written one of his most delightful chapters on this 

 little squirrel but makes the mistake of calling it the Douglas squirrel, 

 of which it is a well-marked subspecies (mountains of California). 



Breeding habits. Apparently the young of the Sierra chickaree 

 are not produced until some time in June, as they usually do not ap- 

 pear out of the nests until July. The usual 4 to 6 young ara 

 raised in the trunks of hollow trees, or the leafy nests among the 

 branches. As soon as the young are out of the nests the mother 

 squirrels are very solicitous and alert, watching for enemies and 

 scolding any intruders, warning the young and sending them scur- 

 rying to cover at the first warning of real or imaginary danger. 



Food habits. Like others of the group these squirrels live in great 

 part on the rich oily seeds of conifers, gathered from the hemlocks, 

 spruces, firs, Douglas spruce, lodgepole, yellow, and Jeffrey pines, 

 and even the huge cones of the sugar pine, and the little round cones 

 of the giaiit sequoias. They often store bushels of cones in hollows 

 and cavities, or tuck them under logs and roots enough food to 

 last nearly or quite the year around. They are great storers and in a 

 good cone year are sure of ample food for the winter, if they are 

 not robbed. They also gather acorns from some of the oaks within 

 their range and such other nuts and seeds as are available. Fruit, 

 berries, and mushrooms are also eaten and possibly a wider range of 

 insect and animal food than is generally known. When other food 

 is scarce or locked up by snow and ice, these squirrels can always eke 

 out a living on buds and bark cut from twigs of trees or bushes. The 



