THE GROUND SQUIRRELS OP CALIFORNIA. 



685 



In July, 1905, we found the Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels 

 especially numerous around Bluff Lake, altitude 7,500 feet. Here they 

 were to be seen all over the floor of the pine and fir woods, foraging 

 among the chinquapin and deer-brush thickets. None was ever seen 

 to climb a tree, though individuals were often seen perched motionless 

 on stumps, logs or boulders. No matter where encountered, they always 

 sought safety in holes in the ground or in crevices among rocks. They 

 were notably quiet animals, giving only occasionally a single sharp note 

 of alarm, or else, rarely, a low chuckle. 



Fig. 25. San Bernardino Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel as taken from nest while 

 dormant during period of hibernation. Note that the animal is curled into an almost 

 globular shape, with head down and nose snuggled against stomach between fore 

 and hind feet ; tail curled underneath, partly concealing head. 



Around Bear Lake the Yellowheads were common through the woods 

 down to the water's edge. On the north slopes of Sugarloaf, on 

 August 22, they were very busy gathering cheek-pouchfuls of seeds of 

 a lupine, and the fruits of the deer-brush {Ceanothus cordulatus) and 

 of a recldish-fruited currant (Bihes sp.). Elsewhere they were seen 

 carrying to their burrows quantities of the green burrs of the chin- 

 quapin {Gastanopsis sempervirens) . The burrows usually opened out 

 under logs, rotten stumps, or boulders. There was seldom any mound 

 of earth to mark an entrance. 



A female squirrel captured at Dry Lake, 9,000 feet altitude, on 

 June 22, was found to contain four embryos. The young must have 



