MAMMALS. 43 



appeared over the edge of tlie rocks down into the cavern, where the 

 Avater was roaring, and. after getting a drink, flashed back and out 

 over the great snow field ; otliers were seen sitting on the tips of some 

 sliarp peaks of rock, flipping their slender tails and uttering a weak 

 little chip! chip! chip! When startled in the trails where they were 

 hunting for scattered grain they would rush away to the rocks with 

 a fine rapid chipper that corresponded well with their diminutive 

 size and sparklike motions. They were eagerly collecting seeds from 

 some of the tiny alpine plants, and in Piegan Pass one taken for a 

 specimen had filled its cheek pouches with crumbs of bread from the 

 hmches of passing tourists. On August 3 the j'oung of the year were 

 nearly full grown and were as busy as their parents in search of 

 seeds. In their high alpine world the summers are short, and for 

 about nine months of each j^ear they are buried deep und.er the snow. 

 They do not become fat in autumn, and it is doubtful if they hiber- 

 nate to the full extent that the ground squirrels do. Thus they have 

 to work fast to obtain the large supply of seeds needed to carry them 

 through the winter. As grains of oats scattered along the trails by 

 the- horses are eagerly sought by them, tourists may look for them 

 wherever the trails cross'the highest passes in the park. 



Maktled Ground Squirrel: CaUospermophHus lateralis cinera- 

 xcens (Merriam). — Mantled gromid squirrels are generally spoken of 

 as large chii:)munks, which they somewhat resemble in the heavy black 

 and buffy side stripes, moderately bushy tails, and bright Ijrown 

 or grayish brown' heads and shoulders, but they are more like the 

 ground squirrels in having heavy bodies, rather short ears, and the 

 burrowing habits of true ground squirrels. In structure they are 

 somewhat intermediate between the two groups and are well placed 

 in. a genus by themselves. 



While generally distributed over the whole- Glacier Park region, 

 they are usually not numerous. In 1895 a- specimen was taken -at 

 Summit on the railroad, a few: at St. Mary Lake, and others were 

 seen on Flat Top Mountain north of the lake: and in 1017 they were 

 found at Sun Camp on St. Mary Lake, in Gunsight Pass, Piegan Pass, 

 at Many Glacier, and about Waterton Lake. They are generally 

 seen about the hotels or camps where,coming for scattered grain and 

 crumbs, they soon become very tame. At Many Glacier Hotel one 

 was in the habit of coming daily to the kitchen door and to the place 

 where saddle horses were hitched to the trees and occasionally fed 

 oats, and he would take food from the hands of several of the 

 employees who had cultivated his acquaintance. To the children 

 especially, one of the interesting features of the day was to watch 

 him tilling his capacious cheek pouches with crumbs, peanuts, or 

 grain, until they bulged out on both sides of his neck, before he 

 scampered away to unload his stores into an underground chamber in 



