90 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol. 10 



enough and descend steeply enough to permit the animals to 

 tumble in and out of sight and reach with very little effort, and 

 the ground is far too rocky to permit of their being dug out. 

 Their extreme wariness is correlated with conspicuousness, for 

 the dark brown pelage shows in marked contrast against either 

 gray rocks or green grass. The only condition under which they 

 could be regarded as colored protectively was when one lay still, 

 sprawled on a boulder in the sunshine; one or two seen thus 

 might easily have been passed by unnoticed as bunches of brown 

 urns* on the rocks. They whistled but seldom, only one or two 

 being heard during the three weeks we spent in their territory. 



At the time we were in the region, the first three weeks in 

 July, no young ones had yet emerged from the burrows, but 

 several of the females secured were nursing. They are thus 

 somewhat later in their breeding than M. caligata, as observed 

 in southern Alaska, where young were seen running about the 

 middle of June. The period of hibernation must be long in these 

 mountains, for the snowfall is heavy, covering the ground to a 

 great depth. Even at the end of July there were snow banks 

 twenty or thirty feet deep lingering in many places. 



Eleven specimens were collected (nos. 12090-12100), five 

 males and six females, all adults. Two complete skeletons were 

 preserved. Two of the marmots are in fresh pelage, the others 

 variously advanced in the change from the old coat to the new. 

 The color of the fresh pelage is very dark brown, above and 

 below, the tip of the nose and chin and an irregular streak along 

 the center of the breast and abdomen, white ; a few white hairs 

 scattered over the back. The old, faded pelage is much paler, 

 nearer a cinnamon or wood brown. For a detailed description 

 and measurements of the species see Swarth, 1911b. p. 201. 



Castor canadensis leucodontus Gray 

 Pacific Beaver 

 As a result of a number of years of protection beavers have 

 multiplied on Vancouver Island so as to be really abundant in 

 many places. We found them at several points in greater or less 

 numbers, and at other places saw remnants of dams and houses 

 as evidence of the former occurrence of the species. There was 



