ZOOLOGY. 117 
The Missouri striped ground-squirrel has five dark-brown 
stripes on the back, separated by four gray stripes; the sides 
are reddish-brown, the belly grayish-white, and the tail rusty- 
black above and rusty-brown beneath. The animal is four or 
five inches long. It is found in the northern parts of the state. 
It eats acorns and the seeds of the pine, manzanita, and ceano- 
thus, in the thickets of which last-named bush it prefers to hide 
its stores. 
The Spermophile has two species in California, which resem- 
ble each other so closely, that they are usually supposed to be 
the same; they are popularly known as the Californian ground- 
squirrels, the little pests which are so destructive to the grain- 
crops. Their bodies are ten or eleven inches long in the largest 
specimens; the tail is eight inches long, and bushy; the ears 
large; the cheeks pouched, and herein consists the chief differ- 
ence between them and squirrels; the color above black, yel- 
lowish-brown, and brown, in indistinct mottlings, hoary-yel- 
lowigb on the sides of the head and neck, and pale yellowish- 
brown on the under side of the body and legs. They dwell in 
burrows, and usually live in communities in the open, fertile 
valleys, preferring to make their burrows under the shade of 
an oak-tree. Sometimes, however, single spermophiles will be 
found living in a solitary manner, remote from their fellows. 
Their burrows, like those of the prairie-dog, are often used by 
the rattlesnake and the little owl. Dr. Newberry says: “They 
are very timid, starting at every noise, and on every intrusion 
inte their privacy dropping from the trees, or hurrying in from 
their wanderings, and scudding to their holes with all possible 
celerity ; arriving at the entrance, however, they stop to recon- 
noitre, standing erect, as squirrels rarely and spermophiles 
habitually do, and looking about to satisfy themselves of the 
nature and designs of the intruder. Should this second view 
justify their flight, or a motion or step forward still further 
alarm them, with a peculiar movement, like that of a diving 
duck, they plunge into their burrows, not to venture out till 
all cause of fear is past. Should you in the mean time have 
