SC1URID.E 65 



Subgenus Otospermophilus. (Ear— spermophile.) 

 Ears large; tail nearly as long- as head and body, full 

 haired ; pelage mottled ; audita! bullje rather small, with large and 

 well rimmed external orifices ; skull comparatively long and nar- 



row. 



Citellus beecheyi Richardson. (For Captain F. W. 



Beechey. ) 



CALIFORNIA GROUND SQUIRREL. 



Size large; tail long and comparatively bushy; ears large i 

 back and sides thickly sprinkled with indistinct small whitish or 

 pale brown spots on a sepia or drab ground, each spot bordered 

 behind with dusky, the spots with a tendency to coalesce in irregu- 

 lar bars; a whitish patch on the sides of the neck, commencing 

 behind the ears and prolonged across the shoulders in a stripe 

 ending on the upper part of the side, these neck patches usually 

 distinct and separated from each other by a pointed extension of 

 the color of the back ; top of head bistre grizzled with whitish ; 

 eyelids grayish buff or white; feet, sides of head and sometimes 

 the face brownish gray; inner (concave) surface of ears and 

 back border of outer surface yellowish gray, remainder of ears 

 black ; below brownish white or grayish ; tail grizzled brown , the 

 hairs having two or three dull black rings and the remainder, in- 

 cluding base and tip yellowish white, the under surface of tail 

 grayer than the upper side. Young; paler; white neck patches 

 distinct; spots on sides and back dim. 



Length about 415 mm-. (16.33 inches) ; tail vertebras 170 

 (6.70) ; hind foot 55 (2.15) ; ear from crown 20 (.80). 



Type locality, California, probably Monterey, possibly San 

 Diego. 



California Ground Sc[uirrels are abundant in nearly all parts 

 of central and southern California, frequenting open valleys, brush 

 and rocky hillsides alike; any sort of place that will supply abund- 

 ant food will answer, but the borders of open ground where they 

 can retreat to the cover of brush or rocks is preferred. They are 



