170 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



The Texas Ground Squirrel; Its Habits 

 and Its Haunts 



Up North there exist several 

 of the chipmunk variety, but 

 one of the most interesting species 

 indigenous to our Texas climate 

 is our "ground squirrel." The 

 Northern species are differently 

 built, especially as to the striped 

 body and the ears. Northern so- 

 called ' ' chipmunk ' ' are more erect 

 and more pointed, whilst in our 

 Texas variety, the ears are more 

 flat and narrow, and t^ey barely 

 protrude over the cranium. They 

 also are much more slender, with 



1908, of the "Texas Field and 

 Sportsman" anent the advisibility 

 of exterminating the ground squir- 

 rel and, as the reports dwell on 

 the actual observations of reliable 

 parties, both notes in the Texas 

 Field and Sportsman are repro- 

 duced for a better understanding 

 of the subject, as follows: 



"Henry Howard, a prominent 

 farmer of Black Creek, near De- 

 vine, and a successful hunter, says 

 that he, has 'kept a record of 

 auail's nests found for the past 



Texas Ground Squirrel Near Cactus Jungle and Prairie Rat Nest, Mitchell's Lake 



rather a thin and long body, a 

 long oval shaped head, interrupted 

 with white and dairk stripes alonS 

 the back, and the tail is not as 

 bushy as is the chipmunk and by 

 far not as in the common tree-, 

 squirrel. As to its habits I may 

 be allowed to append some data 

 as to our ground squirrel being 

 an ' ' egg-eater. " Under the 

 heading: "Kill the Ground 

 Squirrel," two contributions ap^ 

 peared in the September issue, 



four years and the average of the 

 eggs destroyed during that time, 

 was 90 per cent. Last year he 

 found fotty two nests and only 

 one of them was not' destroyed 

 before the eggs hatched. His rec- 

 ord covering the four years shows 

 forty-four to eighty nests found. 

 He is a close observer of game 

 and reports a bountiful supply 

 of quail this year. He says if 

 the sportsmen would devote more 

 of their time to protecting the quail 



