MAMMALS. 49 



had evidently been successful in making a meal of a nice fat ground 

 squirrel, as the nest had been pulled out and apparently no avenue of 

 escape had been i)rovided. Probably the bears are more successful 

 in this kind of hunting after the squirrels have gone into their winter 

 dens and become torpid, as most of the digging seemed to have been 

 done late in fall. 



The edible qualities of these squirrels have been discovered not 

 alone by bears, as badgers, coyotes, foxes, cats, and hawks are fond 

 of them. Some which I had collected for specimens and broiled 

 on sticks over the coals of the camp tire were pronounced delicious 

 by every member of the party. The young of the year are certainly 

 as good as any young tree squirrel, and some of the party pronounced 

 them better than young rabbit or chicken. In places where the 

 squirrels have become so numerous as to be troublesome about camps 

 or injurious to the meadows, it would not be difficult to control their 

 abundance by allowing the campers to snare enough of them for their 

 supplj^ of camp meat. Any boy with a piece of string and a little 

 patience would be able to provide a good mess of squirrels in a morn- 

 ing's hunt. 



Richardson Ground Squirrel: Cltellus rlchardsonl (Sabine). — 

 The common flickertails of the Plains are small, plain 3'ellowisli 

 ground squirrels, like miniature prairie-dogs. They are Plains ani- 

 mals, reaching into the eastern edge of Glacier Park only on the 

 tongues of open ground. The only place where they are actually 

 common within the boundaries of the park is at the lower end of St. 

 Mary Lake, but they have been reported above the Sherburne Lakes 

 in the Swiftcurrent Valley, and they come close to the park line 

 in the Cut Bank, the Bell}' River, and Waterton Valleys. Along the 

 stage road from Glacier to St. Mary they are in places abundant and 

 consi^icuous over the prairies, as also they are from St. Mary around 

 to the Swiftcurrent Valley, so that a. trip through the park implies 

 a rather close acquaintance with these little squirrels. 



They are strictly prairie dwellers, living in the open and depend- 

 ing on keen sight and hearing for ])rotection from their numerous 

 enemies, and on their skill in disappearing underground in case of 

 danger. From the road their sharp whistle is frequently heard, 

 and at a little distance they may be seen standing straight up in 

 the grass like picket pins, which they are often called, but on nearer 

 a])proach they quickly drop to the ground and disappear as by magic. 

 In places the low mounds of earth at their burrows dot the valleys 

 and their runways form a network through the short grass. 



On bright summer mornings they are esi3ecially busy gathering 

 food from the leaves, stems, seeds, and roots of numerous prairie 



