1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 161 



are found full to capacity, especially as the time for hibernation 

 draws near and the storage of fat becomes of vital importance. 



Economic status. Fortunately these animals rarely come in touch 

 with any kind of agriculture except grazing, and they are rarely 

 found in such numbers as to be of any serious economic importance. 

 In many of the most picturesque and inspiring mountain parks and 

 over rugged cliffs and rock-strewn slopes, they give a wildlife thrill 

 that has a real value beyond the mere utilitarian needs of food and 

 clothing. 



MARMOTA FLAVIVENTRIS AVARA (BANGS) 



PALE YELLOW-BELLIED MAEMOT ; WOODCHUCK ; GBOUND HOG ; KE-DU of the Piute 



at Burns 



Arctomys flaviventer avarus Bangs, New England Zool. Club Proc. 1 : 68, 1899. 



Type. Collected at Okanagan, British Columbia, by Allan C. Brooks, July 

 17, 1897. 



General characters. Slightly smaller than flaviventris ; colors paler, espec- 

 ially the buffy underfur, and light buffy ochraceous sides of neck and hams; 

 generally a whitish bar across face besides whitish chin and nose. 



Measurements. Adult male: Total length, 660 mm; tail, 178; foot, 80; 

 ear (dry), 19, from crown, 9. A half -grown young from the Mahogany Moun- 

 tains weighed 4% pounds. A yearling male from Jordan River, not very fat, 

 on July 3, weighed 8 pounds. Large and very fat adults would probably 

 weigh much more. 



Distribution and habitat. These marmots of the lower country 

 cover most of Oregon east of the Cascades wherever there are masses 

 of rocks and extend from northern Nevada well into British Colum- 

 bia (fig. 30). Over the low pass in the Cascades north of Three 

 Sisters Peaks they come up to the summit of the range, evidently 

 extending up in the great lava deposits that run down to the Des- 

 chutes Valley. Over wide areas of valley and prairie they are 

 entirely absent, but generally in the rimrock, cliffs, canyon walls, 

 and lava fields are more or less common. Most of their range lies in 

 Upper Sonoran and Transition Zones, but little choice of habitat is 

 shown other than safe cover of rocks and a satisfactory food supply. 



General habits. In no important respect do their habits differ 

 from those of M. flwviventris except that in lower, warmer, drier 

 country they may come out of their dens earlier, breed earlier, and 

 hibernate earlier than at higher levels. In the Steens Mountains, 

 however, they range in Kiger Gorge up to at least 6,800 feet, where 

 Sheldon and Becker saw them out as late as August 23, after they 

 had all disappeared at the lower levels about Diamond. 



At Westfall, in Malheur County, Robert H. Becker found them 

 unusually numerous, making their homes in the rocks along the edge 

 of the valley, and some making burrows out in the alfalfa and grain- 

 fields at some distance from the rocks, where they were doing con- 

 siderable damage. One of the ranchmen was obliged to poison them 

 to protect his fields and claimed to have killed more than 90 during 

 the spring and early summer. 



Near Drewsey, where he was collecting specimens, Becker could 

 get no marmots, as some Indians camped near there had killed them 

 all for food. 



7209 36 11 



