Ground Squirrels. 305 



squirrels, commonly g:oing into winter quarters before the 

 middle of November, and tliough early thaws sometimes 

 bring them out in February, rarely appearing again in any 

 numbers until the warm sun in March or April has caused 

 bare spots to appear between the snow banks. 

 In running from tree to tree, even when not pursued, the 

 length of their bound is from twenty-five to thirty-four 

 inches — a long leap for so small an animal." The young 

 are born in the spring, and live in their nests until June; 

 and as there is seldom a good crop of beech nuts any- 

 where two successive years a migration generally begins 

 in July. The Chipmunk usuallj^ keeps to the ground, 

 though it will at times run a few feet up the trunk of a 

 tree, and when pursued may even take refuge among the 

 branches. It does not burrow like the spermophiles. 



The Siberian ground squirrel (Tamias-asiaticus), 

 which is also known as the Siberian Chipmunk, is found in 

 northern Asia and extends into Russia. This species dif- 

 fers from the Common American Chipmunk in that it has 

 four light colored and five black stripes on the body and 

 has a longer tail. A number of other varieties of Chip- 

 munks are also found in North America, from the barren 

 grounds to New Mexico and Arizona. 



THE SUSLIK OR SPERMOPHILE. 



The Suslik or Sisel (Spermophilis-citillus), is confined 

 to Europe, Asia Minor and Asia north of the Himalayas ; 

 but the North American Spermophile, which is never seen 

 on the eastern slope of the continent, belongs to the same 

 genus. These animals have skulls like the squirrels, but 

 are characterized by large cheek pouches, and such dis- 

 tinctive coloration and markings that even the striped 

 specimens need never be confounded with the Chipmunk, 

 which is found in nearly the same regions of the North- 

 ern Hemisphere. There is considerable variation in the 

 size of the ears and the length of the tail, but the first 

 toe on the forefoot is always rudimentary in all the 

 species of the Spermophilis, although a nail is sometimes 

 present. Everman's Suslik (Spermophilis-eversmanni) is 

 the only Old World species that has a long tail. 



The common Suslik of Central and eastern Europe 

 and Siberia, an animal about the size of the European 

 Squirrel, is uniform in color, and has a very short tail 



