80 AMMAL LIFE IN THE YOSEMITE 



exclusively of the hulls and seeds from manzanita berries {Arctostaphylos 

 mariposa). These berries when ripe are notabh' sweet to the human taste 

 and must be highlj' nutritious. This easily gotten food is also abundant 

 and the berries are available over a long season, from the first of August 

 to at least December. On the brushy slopes of the hills a fox would need 

 to do much skilful hunting to get a sufficient supply of meat daily from 

 cottontail rabbits, wood rats, mice and small birds; plenty of berries are 

 to be had, however, simply for the eating. As to other vegetable food, 

 we may note that in the stomach of a fox trapped at El Portal we found, 

 among other items, some blades of grass; another stomach contained some 

 finely chewed material which looked like oak-mast. 



As to animal food, we are able to definitely report that one stomach 

 contained the remains of a pocket gopher; another had claws of some 

 carnivore (which, however, may have been used as bait for traps). One 

 lot of droppings included ribs and vertebrae of a small rodent, probably 

 a white-footed mouse. Local trappers told us that Gray Foxes would come 

 readily to traps baited wath 'cracklings,' even though this material was 

 buried in the ground. The members of our field party used successfully, 

 in addition to bacon scraps, the bodies of small birds and mammals whose 

 skins had been removed for specimens. In only one instance were we able 

 to affirm that a fox had devoured a quail. In Yosemite Valley on the 

 morning of December 24, 1914, one trap in a setting put out for foxes 

 contained the leg of a Mountain Quail. Beside the trap were fox droppings 

 and quail feathers. The bird had accidentally gotten into the trap ; then 

 the fox had come along and feasted. 



Foxes evidently prey upon small birds to some extent, though our 

 evidence on this point is rather inferential in character. For example, 

 while the senior author was walking along a road through the chaparral 

 near Pleasant Valley, on May 25, 1915, there came to his ears, from a 

 nearby canon bottom, the remonstrant chirping of a pair of Rufous-crowned 

 Sparrows concerned over some marauder near their nest. A Bell Sparrow 

 and a male Lazuli Bunting nearby lent voice to the demonstration. The 

 observer approached cautiously and soon a Gray Fox was jumped in the 

 ravine bottom. At Blacks Creek, near Coulterville, in May, 1919, a fox 

 crossed the creek near our camp. At the instant the fox appeared a male 

 Valley Quail, standing guard nearby, uttered a series of exjilosive sputter- 

 ing notes indicative of great concern. 



Judging from specimens obtained in the foothill country, the breeding 

 season of the Gray Fox occurs in the spring months. No data were obtained 

 locally as to th(^ nuni])er of young, but elsewliere it has been ascertained 

 to average four in a litter. 



