158 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



sunflower seeds, flowers, and foliage, but eating other green vegeta- 

 tion and getting into traps baited with meat. Growing or ripe grain, 

 alfalfa, and many other farm crops are extensively eaten. 



Economic status. These are the only ground squirrels in the val- 

 leys where they occur, and while small they are often so numerous 

 as to be as destructive to crops as some of the larger species. There 

 is much irrigated and highly cultivated land within their range, 

 and much more that will eventually be brought under cultivation. 

 When a new field is cleared and planted the squirrels flock in 

 from the surrounding sagebrush and wild land, and if the field is 

 small, they sometimes destroy the whole crop, eating the seed, the 

 growing grain, and the ripening heads. The borders of large fields 

 are often left in a ragged and much injured condition, and serious 

 losses are sustained in both grain and meadow crops. 



As with other species of ground squirrels poison, traps, and guns 

 are used to keep down their numbers, and only by constant vigilance 

 can serious losses be prevented. The protection of such natural 

 enemies as badgers, skunks, weasels, hawks, and owls is rarely given 

 the importance it deserves, and many of these best friends of the 

 farmer are wantonly destroyed. Like other members of the Citellus 

 mollis group these little squirrels could be utilized as food with a 

 double advantage. 



CITELLUS ELEGANS NEVADENSIS HOWELL 

 NEVADA GROUND SQUIRREL 



Citellus elegans nevadensis Howell, Biol. Soc. Wash. Proc. 41 : 211, 1928. 



Type. Collected at Paradise, Humbolt County, Nev., by Stanley E. Piper, 

 March 3, 1908. 



General characters. Somewhat larger than the Oregon ground squirrel, and 

 with relatively longer tail; lower surface of tail ochraceous instead of rusty. 

 Summer pelage, upper parts buffy gray, specked with buffy and dusky ; ears, 

 feet, sides, and whole lower parts clear rich buff or ochraceous ; winter pelage 

 lighter, more grayish above and clear ochraceous below. 



Measurements. Adult male: Total length, 315 mm; tail, 98; foot, 48; ear, 

 inside, 13, outside, 7. Weight, 1% pounds (not much fat, stomach full). 



Distribution and habitat. This extreme western form of the Citel- 

 lus richardsonii and elegans group reaches into southeastern Oregon 

 on the high Transition Zone plains north of Fort McDermitt, and 

 may well have a continuous range through the Bruneau Mountains 

 of northern Nevada and southern Idaho to the previously known 

 range of elegans in southeastern Idaho and Wyoming. 



t Three specimens were secured by the roadside on top of the 

 divide between the headwaters of Quinn River and Rattlesnake 

 Creek, in Malheur County, Or eg., and others were seen along the 

 road over the top of this plateau and easily recognized by their strik- 

 ingly yellowish colors. 



The one old male collected on July 2, in full summer pelage, was 

 not very fat but was in good condition. Its stomach was well filled 

 with green foliage, flowers, and seeds of various plants, and its 

 cheek pouches were stuffed to their utmost capacity with ripe seeds 

 of Collomia in 1,160 capsules, a few small seeds of Coltinsia, and a 

 little crucifer. The cheek pouches were so large as to give the 

 head the appearance of being triple its normal size. The smaller 



