WHITE GOAT— SQUIRRELS — SUSLIKS 321 



legs, but erect along the line of the back, making the animal appear as if it had 

 two humps. It is one of the few ruminants whose thick woolly coat is white all 

 the year round, and it is consequently almost invisible in the snow-covered regions 

 it inhabits, though conspicuous enough among dark rocks and green mountain 

 meadows. The white goat lives a solitary life, and is only social in winter and 

 at the pairing-season, which takes place in November. Sometimes when driven 

 by stress of hunger it will descend to the woods, but it rarely comes down to the 

 sea-level, though it has been seen swimming across rivers or their estuaries. 



Throughout Canada, as in the rest of North America, rodent 



mammals literally abound, both in individuals and species. Among 

 the squirrel tribe a familiar form in the country is the chickari (Sciurus 

 hudsonianus), which is generally of a grey colour, with a more or less yellowish 

 or reddish tinge, and white below, with dusky markings on the back and some- 

 times on the under-parts. It is small and short-tailed, and in winter develops 

 short tufts of hair on the ears. By no means sensitive to cold, it does not 

 hibernate, but is active all through the severest weather, burrowing at times into the 

 loose snow so that it entirely disappears for some distance, and when again visible 

 shaking itself and frisking away with the same appearance of pleasure as if it had 

 taken a refreshing bath in the heat of the summer. The chickari differs in manv 

 respects from the common European squirrel in its habits, spending most of its 

 time on the ground and not leading an arboreal life. It in fact makes its home 

 frequently in holes in the earth, where it can find a safe refuge ; although it has 

 a partiality for timber-heaps, the stumps of trees, and piles of brushwood, over which 

 it climbs with activity. 



One of the most familiar representatives of the pretty little striped ground- 

 squirrels is the common chipmunk {Tamias striatus), whose range (inclusive of its 

 subspecies) extends from Canada and Manitoba to Georgia and western Missouri. 

 Numerous species of chipmunks are now recognised by American naturalists, of 

 which, for the most part, the southern are paler in colour than those from the 

 north. The ground-colour of the common chipmunk is much the same as that 

 of its European relative, which this animal resembles in most points; but the 

 American species has on each side of the body a white, black-bordered stripe, and 

 a black white-bordered stripe on each side of the head, with a black stripe down 

 the back. This chipmunk prefers hiding-places from which it can watch the 

 passers-by, and consequently instals itself among piles of rubbish and brushwood, 

 or in the stumps of old trees, or burrows in the ground. 



The susliks form another genus of the squirrel family common to 



the two hemispheres, and are represented by a large number of !North 



American forms. Of these latter may be mentioned the striped suslik or striped 



gopher (Spermophilus tridecemlineatus), whose range extends through central 



North America from Texas to the Saskatchewan plains of Canada. Another 



northern member of the group, found in the vicinity of Bering Strait and Hudson 



Bay, is Parry's suslik (S. empetra). The habits of these animals are, for the most 



part, at any rate, very similar to those of their European relatives, all the 



members of the group being sociable species which consort in colonies. The 



generic name Citellus is now generally adopted for these rodents. 

 vol. 11. — 21 



