810 



MONOORAPnS OF NORTH AMERICAN RODENTIA. 





tiiincd ncnr llio sourcca of tho Arkansas River. Mr. Say properly regnnle<l 

 it 118 a Ground Squirrel, though describing it ns a Sciurut. lie says : — "It is 

 allied to the Sc. ttruifut, and belongs to the same subgenus (Tamias, Illig), 

 but it is of larger Rize," et«., etc. Dr. Richardson, in his excellent account 

 of the 8|)ecies, transferred it to Spermophilut (regarded by him as a subgenus 

 of Arctomyi), to which genus it was afterward uniformly referred Mil 1874, 

 when I again placed it in Tamias, 



Up to a comparatively recent date, this has been a rare species in col- 

 lections. Professor Bainl, in 1857, was able to refer to but two examples, 

 and few others had been seen by other naturalists. In the preparation of the 

 present article, I have had access to upward of seventy specimens, nearly 

 ail of which have been collected since 1868, and most of them under tho 

 auspices of the present Survey. 



Its known range extends from Apache, Ariz. {Coue* and Yarrow), north- 

 ward in the Rocky Mountains to latitude 57°, where, according to Richard- 

 son, it was obtained fifty years ago by Mr. Drummond. As shown by tho 

 subjoined list of specimens, it has been met with by Dr. Elliott Coues in 

 Northern Montana ; by Dr. Hayden and Mr. W. S. Woo<l, in the Black Hills ; 

 by Mr. F. J. Huse, at Yellowstone Lake, Montana Territory; by Mr. C. H. Mer- 

 riani, at Henry's Lake, Idaho; by Dr. J. S. Newberry and Capt. Charles 

 Bendire, in Oregon ; by Mr. J. Stevenson and others, in various parts of Col- 

 orado ; by Messrs. Ridgway and Bischoff, in Nevada ; and by Capt. J. H. 

 Simpson's party, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Dr. J. G. Cooper al8o 

 refers to it as "common" near the summits of the Sierra Nevada Mountains 

 in latitude 36°, and Mr. H. W. Henshaw reports it as frequent in the mount- 

 ains of Southern California. Dr. Coues has lately found it "very common" 

 in the pine-belt of the mountains of Northern Colorado. It hence may be 

 supposed to occur throughout the mountainous districts of the interior, from 

 the Black Hills of Dakota westward to the Sierra Nevada and Cascade luinges. 

 It lives among rocks in wooded districts, and appears to be chiefly alpii:') \a. 

 its distribution. Its habits closely resemble those of the Chipmunk (TT 

 striatus) of the Eastern States, as was noticed by Mr. Say, and later by 

 Dr. Newberry and other writers who have had the opportunity of observing 

 it in life. 



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