1912] Stcarth: Birds and Mammals from Vancouver Island 87 



farmed. In such places, on the outskirts of civilization, the 

 wolves and panthers are hunted and driven back, and the deer 

 prosper accordingly, while in the wilder regions these predaceous 

 animals are abundant enough to be a serious menace to them. 



Eleven specimens were preserved (nos. 12052-12061, 12603), 

 two adult males, two adult females, three immature males (shot 

 in September, one of them still retaining some ill-defined spots), 

 two spotted fawns, one skull of an adult male, and a fragment 

 of a skull with a deformed antler. 



Sciurus hudsonius vancouverensis Allen 

 Vancouver Island Squirrel 



Generally distributed and, in places, quite abundant. Miss 

 Alexander and Miss Kellogg found them common on the east 

 coast in April and May, and secured specimens at Parksville. 

 French Creek, and Little Qualicum River. In the Beaver Creek 

 Valley they were not so abundant. This country had been 

 burned over in years past, and it may be that the altered con- 

 ditions were not as favorable to the species as in places where 

 there was not so much dead and burned timber. Here, after the 

 middle of June, young squirrels began to appear, the first that 

 were seen. In the Golden Eagle Basin there were a few, usually 

 observed near the edge of the woods, in the vicinity of the more 

 open ground. This was the highest altitude (about 2000 feet) 

 at which I saw them. At Nootka Sound they were seen daily, 

 both at the Tahsis Canal and at Friendly Cove, but never in any 

 numbers. When we returned to Errington in September red 

 squirrels were more abundant than I had seen them at any other 

 point. They were seen everywhere in the woods and at the edges 

 of the clearings, the bulk of them evidently young and not yet 

 full grown, and almost always exceedingly tame. 



We collected twenty-eight specimens during the summer (nos. 

 12062-12089), all but two being adults. Those taken on the 

 east coast in April and May are all in the winter pelage. Of 

 eight collected in Beaver Creek Valley from May 31 to June 25, 

 one (no. 12074, May 31) is in complete summer pelage, two (nos. 

 12078, 12079, June 23) are in winter pelage, and the others 

 variously advanced in the change, and showiug molt lines and 

 irregular patches of old and new hair over parts of the body. Of 



