ZOOLOGY. 3S5 



tlesnake and the little owl. Dr. Newberry says : " They are 

 very timid, starting at every noise, and at every intrusion into 

 their privacy, dropping from the trees, or hurrying in from 

 their wanderings, and scudding to their holes with all possi- 

 ble celerity ; arriving at the entrance, however, they stop to 

 reconnoitre, standing erect, as squirrels rarely and spermo- 

 philes habitually do, and looking about to satisfy them- 

 selves of the nature and designs of the intruder. Should 

 this second view justify their flight, or a motion or a step for- 

 ward still further alarm them, with a peculiar movement, 

 like that of a diving duck, they plunge into their burrows, 

 not to venture out till all cause of fear is past. Should you 

 in the meantime have seated yourself with your back against 

 a tree, and have remained for a time as immovable as the 

 trunk against which you lean, you will see sundry little heads 

 protruding from the burrows, with as many pairs of eyes and 

 ears skilled to detect the least sign of danger from their 

 equally-feared enemies, the coyote, the Californian vulture, 

 the red-shouldered and red-tailed hawk, and man himself. If, 

 however, your silence and quietness persuade them that you 

 are none of these, they will swarm forth from their holes, and 

 at first timidly, but, gaining confidence, more fearlessly, en- 

 gage in all the sports and antics for which the sciuridoe are 

 noted, and in which none excel the species under considera- 

 tion. It is a pretty sight, and one to which I have often 

 treated myself, to sit down quietly under these old oaks, and 

 watch the squirrels running about over the grass and trees, 

 gambolling and playing together. As far as the eye could 

 reach through the vista, the sprightly movements of these in- 

 nocent animals could be discerned." 



The two species are called Beechey's spermophile (Spermo- 

 philus beecheyi) and Douglas's spermophile (tSpermopinHttt 

 douglasii). The size, habits, and general appearance of the 

 two species are the same, but they differ in the color of a stripe 

 along the spine from the base of the head to the middle of the 

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