MAMMALS OF UTAH 75 



Subfamily MICROTINAE— Voles. 



PEALE VOLE 



MICROTUS MONTANUS (Peale) 



Arvicola montanus Peale, U. S. Exploring Exp'd. Mam- 

 malogy, 44, 1848. 



Arvicola longirostris Baird, Mamm. N. Amer. 530-531, 1857. 

 (Prom upper Pitt River, California.) 



Description — Summer pelage: Upper parts bister or 

 ashy mixed with blackish ; belly washed with soiled whitish, 

 giving a smoky gray or dusky color ; feet plumbeous ; tail 

 indistinctly bicolor, blackish above, plumbeous below; lips 

 usually showing a trace of whitish. (Bailey.) 



Distribution — Northern Utah, Nevada, northeastern 

 California and eastern Oregon. Specimens have been taken 

 at Ogden, Salt Lake City, Provo, Fairfield and Manti. 



Habits — The voles are easily discovered by their tun- 

 nels and runways through the meadow grass. They build 

 bulky nests beneath the surface. Their food consists of 

 grass, bark, seeds, grain and some flesh ; and they do severe 

 damage throughout their range. 



Voles seem to have no definite breeding season. Four to 

 eight young are usually produced at a birth, and in Utah 

 young may be found in the nests at all times of the year. 

 They form the principal food of nearly all hawks and some 

 owls, while weasels, minks, foxes, coyotes, cats, badgers, 

 skunks, and many other animals as well as some snakes, feed 

 on them. (Bailey.) 



Among the snakes found in northern Utah, that feed on 

 these voles may be mentioned the following: the Desert 

 gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer deserticola), the red- 

 barred or Pacific garter snake (Thamnophis sir talis parie- 

 talis), the gray or wandering garter snake (Thamnophis or- 

 dinoides elegans) and the Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus ore- 

 gonus). 



UTAH MEADOW VOLE 



MICROTUS MONTANUS RIVULARIS (Bailey) 



Microtus nevadensis rivularis Bailey, Biol. Soc. Wash., XII, 



1898, p. 87. 

 Microtus montanus rivularis Elliot, Syn. N. Am. Mamm., 



F. C. M. Pub. II, 1901, p. 184. Zool. Ser. 



Description — ^Winter pelage: Upper parts dull bister, 

 darkened with blackish-tipped hairs; sides scarcely paler; 



