182 



Specific Characters. — Length 6.50 to 8.50; tail vertebrae 2.75 to 4.00; 

 tail to end of hairs, 3,75 to 5.50. > 



General form slender and musteline ; ears small ; tail with hairs 

 usually more than ;half the length of body. Color above deep chestnut 

 brown, varying with locality from pale reddish chestnut to nearly 

 black, with seven nearly uninterrupted lines of yellowish-white, ex- 

 tending from forehead to tail, and alternating with six longitudinal 

 rows of sub-quadrate yellowish-white spots ; below yellowish-white 

 varying to tawny, strongest on the sides; buttocks more ferrugineoue ; 

 eye- ring yellowish- white ; upper surface of muzzle gray, sides and front 

 yellowish ; tail narrow, black above and below, varied somewhat with 

 chestnut, and whitish-edged. 



The hairs are reddish-yellow at the base*, crossed by a broad band of 

 black and light-tipped. 



The above characters are intended to cover both the extreme western 

 form, var. pallidus, and the eastern or Mississippi Valley form, var. tride- 

 cemlineatus. The latter averages larger, above is deep chestnut brown, 

 varying to almost black;' it has the white lines rather narrow, about 

 one-third the width of the interspaces ; the sides are strongly yellowish, 

 varying to yellowish-rufous. 



History and Habits. — This species was described in June, 1821, by Dr. 

 Mitchell, from specimens taken on the Upper Mississippi, under the 

 name of Sciurus iridecemlinealus, and by this specific name most American 

 writers have designated it. Eight months later Sabine described it to 

 the Royal Society of London as Arctomys hoodi. This appellation has 

 been almost uniforaily adopted by European authors. Scarcely any two 

 authors have ustd the same common name. 



la Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois it is universally called "gopher," 

 being confounded with the true gopher, Geomys bursarius. 



This species, like the Gray Gopher, is decidedly a prairie animal. It 

 is often met with In oak openings and sparsely wooded ridges, but never 

 in heavy timber; its favorite habitation is on dry prairie knolls. 



It is found singly, in pairs, and where the soil is dry and food abund- 

 ant as many as forty or fifty may inhabit a single acre; each pair keeps 

 to its own burrow. 



Probably few Ohio farmers' lads ever saw this species ; it is described 

 here, on the authority of Dr. Kirtland, Hood's Marmot, being included 

 in that list. It is not probable that so accurate and excellent a natur- 

 alist as the lamented Professor Kirtland would be in error as to the 

 occurrence of so positively marked an animal as the striped Spermophile, 

 and I introduce it in this addenda without the least hesitation, only 



