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ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY 



though their most serious menace is due to the fact that they are carriers 

 of bubonic plague, which they catch from rats. Several cases, some of 

 them fatal, have been traced to ground squirrels, and their destruction 

 is thus seen to be especially important. 



Of the numerous species one of the best known is the California, 

 Beechey, or Digger ground squirrel, Citellus beecheyi, which is of 

 about the same size and general appearance as the eastern gray squirrel, 

 though not so handsome an animal. It can climb trees for its food, but, 



FIG. 159. Mound of California ground squirrel in oats field. 

 straying Rodent Pests on the Farm.) 



(From Lantz, De- 



as its name indicates, it lives on and in the ground, throwing up rounded 

 mounds of dirt from its subterranean burrows, Fig. 159. It eats 

 almost all kinds of vegetable matter fruits, nuts, plants, grain in 

 the ear and newly planted but especially grain. It carries its food 

 in its cheek pouches and stores it underground for future "use. At times 

 it injures the fruit and nut trees by gnawing the bark. It has been 

 known to carry off large quantities of drying fruit. Besides this, it 

 often does serious damage to irrigation ditches and other waterways. 

 There are several methods that may be used to exterminate this 



