1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 155 



Hibernation. These little squirrels usually begin to hibernate 

 about the first of August, although a few late young may be seen 

 out a little later. Generally they reappear during March and 

 promptly begin breeding operations. 



Food habits. The stomachs of those shot for specimens were well 

 filled mostly with green vegetation, seeds, and flowers, with usually 

 a trace of insect remains. The moist stomach contents could easily 

 supply all the water necessary for their bodily needs, as little is 

 carried off by the dry, hard pellets, and much of the food would 

 run 50 to 75 percent of water by weight. They are thus well adapted 

 to desert conditions and to life in dry valleys where often no rain 

 falls for months at a time. 



Economic status. Over most of their range these squirrels are of 

 little economic importance, and they add a bit of wildlife interest 

 to the deserts, but in the fertile and irrigated valleys they sometimes 

 gather along the edges of alfalfa and grain fields in sufficient numbers 

 to do serious damage to crops and must be reckoned with accordingly. 



Among the Piute Indians they have long been a source of food sup- 

 ply and are often hunted by the boys with bows and arrows, sticks, 

 and buckets of water. A gallon of water poured down a burrow 

 will often bring out the occupants, blinking and choking, to be easily 

 killed with a stick or shot with an arrow. Their meat is very 

 palatable, rich, and tender. No animal could be cleaner or more 

 exemplary in its own food habits. 



TjfljA'ltefl?^ 

 CITELLUS MOLLIS CANUS (MEREIAM) 



GRAY SAGE SQUIRREL 



Spermophilus mollis canus Merriam, Biol. Soc. Wash. Proc. 12 : 70, 1898. 



Type. Collected at Antelope, Oreg., by Vernon Bailey in 1896. 



General characters. Small and plump, ears minute, tail insignificant, fur 

 short and very smooth. Smaller and grayer than C. mollis mollis. Colors 

 much the same at all seasons and ages; upper parts clear, fine, uniform buffy 

 gray ; nose and hams dull ochraceous tawny ; feet, sides, and lower parts 

 clear buffy ; tail gray, edged with buff. 



Measurements. Average of 10 adults : Total length, 208 mm ; tail, 40 ; foot, 

 31; ear (dry), 6, from crown, 1. 



Distribution and habitat. These little soft gray ground squirrels 

 occupy the Upper Sonoran sagebrush plains from the type locality on 

 the high ridges between the Deschutes and John Day Rivers, south 

 through the valleys to northwestern Nevada, and east into the 

 Malheur Valley of Oregon (fig. 29). They are a northern form of 

 the mollis group, which occupies the Upper Sonoran Zone of prac- 

 tically the whole of the Great Basin region. 



General habits. These are quiet, secretive little squirrels, soft 

 voiced as they are soft in body, fur, and colors. They blend into 

 the gray soil and gray sagebrush colors, and but for their abundant 

 numbers and soft, lisping whistle, or long squeak, would be passed 

 by unnoticed. 



They burrow under sage bushes or in the open and keep close 

 to their burrows, or, rather, seem always to have burrows close to 

 where they are. Mellow soil is preferred, and ditch banks, which are 

 often honeycombed by them, are a favorite site for the burrows. 

 Plowed fields and dry meadows are also sought for homes if food 

 is abundant. In places they seem almost colonial, but apparently 



