1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 157 



in mollis or camis. Color, similar at all seasons and ages; upper parts finely 

 specked or coarsely grizzled brownish gray; nose and hams touched with pale 

 tawny; tail dark gray, bordered with buffy; feet, sides, and lower parts clear 

 buffy. 



Measurements. Average of 10 adults: Total length, 210 mm; tail, 38; foot, 

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



Distribution and habitat. These little ground squirrels occupy the 

 low, hot valley of the Malheur and Owyhee Rivers in extreme eastern 

 Oregon, representing the mollis group of the whole Great Basin area 

 in this limited area of low, hot desert country (fig. 29). They ap- 

 parently blend into mollis on the south and canus on the west. 



General habits. At Vale where he collected the type and a good 

 series of specimens in May 1910, Stanley G. Jewett reported them as 

 common all over the valley and even up on the rocky foothills to the 

 south. He says they make their burrows anywhere that suits their 

 fancy from the river banks to the highest hills. When alarmed, they 

 fairly fall over themselves in their haste to get into the burrows, 

 uttering a shrill whistle. 



When a burrowing owl flies over a field, the alarm is spread in all 

 directions and every squirrel disappears as if by magic. In 1916 

 Robert H. Becker, collecting specimens at Yale and Ontario, reported 

 them abundant in the fields, along the fence lines, on the levees 

 and ditch banks, out among the sagebrush and boulders, and on valley 

 slopes and hillsides no place was free of them. They were espe- 

 cially numerous in grain and alfalfa fields where they were doing 

 much damage. 



Hibernation. On July 16, at Riverside, they had mostly gone into 

 winter quarters, but one was secured and a hawk was found eating 

 another that was still warm. On July 19, 1896, Merriam saw them 

 along the stage road from Westfall to Beulah. On July 28 and 29, 

 Preble found where they had been numerous over the Cedar Moun- 

 tains but had all denned up except one caught in a gopher trap and 

 another seen but not secured. From August 4 to 6, he could find 

 none over the valley from Riverside to Vale as they were all deep 

 in their dens for the rest of the summer and most of the winter. 

 Nothing definite is known of the time of appearance in spring, but it 

 must be early, probably in February or March, as the young are 

 appearing out of the burrows in the latter part of April and early 

 in May. 



Breeding habits. The mammae of the females) are arranged as 

 in others of the group in 5 pairs, 1 inguinaf, 2 abdominal, and 2 

 pectoral. The number of young in a litter is probably 5 to 10 

 as in other forms of the group. Small young out of the burrows on 

 April 30 and in the early part of May would indicate that they are 

 born early in April or throughout the month. 



Food habits. Near Huntington on May 18, 1896, a colony of 

 several hundred of these little squirrels were living on a sandy flat 

 just back from the river. The stomachs of those collected for speci- 

 mens all contained green herbage, flowers, and unripe seeds. The 

 yellow heads of sunflowers and other composites and the purple 

 flowers of legumes and alfilaria were conspicuous in the food of both 

 old and young. Even at that early date all were laying in their 

 store of fat, At Vale, Jewett reported them feeding largely on wild 



