CHAPTER XXIII. 163 



which, urged on by its curiosity approaches, step by step, until within 

 range, and then pays the penalty. Other hunters who commend them- 

 selves more to the true sportman, hunt the antelope upon the great plain 

 and run it down upon horesback — a most difficult and dangerous pas- 

 time.* 



Among the rodents of the Reserves is the jack rabbit, or more prop- 

 erly, the jack hare, Lepus californicus, a typical and interesting form. 

 It is found all over California, in the southern portion of the State, living 

 in the upland valleys, as the San Gabriel, and in the brush which bor- 

 ders the chaparral of the slopes of the Sierra Madres. In the great 

 valleys, as the San Joaquin, adjacent to the Forest Reserves and the 

 Sierra Nevada mountains, these animals abound in vast numbers and 

 are a mena:!e to the farmer. The natural enemy of this hare is the 

 coyote, and I have always opposed the slaughter of the latter, believing 

 that it was a vital error. The coyote may kill a few turkeys and chick- 

 ens, but it also devours thousands of these tree girdlers. The hare is a 

 swift runner, yet the coyote outwits it in long chases. The jack rabbit 

 does not buirow, forming a crude nest among the scant brush of the 

 open plain. This is often disputed from the fact that the animal is 

 sometimes chased into holes by the hounds; the retreal, however, is 

 the home of the burrowing owl or a badger. Living more completely 

 in the ranges are the cottontails or rabbits, several species of which 

 inhabit the foothill regions of the ranges of the Forest Reserve, and 

 have a decided economic value. 



In the deep canyons of the Sierras the stroller may see perched upon 

 a branching limb a gray squirrel with a silver brush, out of all propor- 

 tion to its size, folded gracefully over its back. This is the gray squirrel 

 of California, Scrurus fossor; a little creature which to me is one of 

 the charms of the beautiful canyons which open into the San Gabriel 

 and other valleys of Southern California. With these are chickarees, 

 or chipmunks, whose graceful movements are a constant delight to the 

 observer. 



BIRDS. 



Ranging down from Northern California into the Forest Reserves 

 in the desert side of the Sierra Nevada is the sage grouse, Centrocercus 

 urophasianus. It is, as an ancient epicure once said of the do-do, more 



*Mr. H. W. Keller states that he found about seventy-five antelopes 

 about forty miles east of Yreka, Siskiyou county, running in the timber, 

 and a band of twelve in the west end of the antelope valley. "I do not 

 think," he writes, "that there are five hundred antelopes in the State." 



