46 Expedition to the 



the g-etulus, L.; but as far as we can judge from the descrip- 

 tion and figures of the latter species by BuflPon, our animal 

 is distinguished by its striped head, less rounded ears, and 

 much less bushy, and not striated and banded tail, and by 

 its smaller size. The getulus is also said to have no thumb 

 warts. 



It is an inhabitant of the Rocky Mountains, about the 

 sources of the Arkansa and Platte. It does not seem to as- 

 cend trees by choice, but nestles in holes and on the edge of 

 the rocks. We did not observe it to have cheek pouches. 



Its nest is composed of a most extraordinary quantity of 

 the burrs of the Xanthium, branches and other portions of 

 the large upright cactus, small branches of pine trees, and 

 other vegetable productions, sufficient in some instances to 

 fill the body of an ordinary cart. What the object of so great 

 and apparently so superfluous an assembalge of rubbish, may 

 be, we are at a loss to conjecture, we do not know what peculi- 

 arly dangerous enemy it may be intended to exclude by so 

 much labour. 



Their principal food, at least at this season, is the seeds of 

 the pine which they readily extract from the cones. 



There is also another species,* inhabiting about the moun- 

 tains, where it was first observed by those distinguished tra- 

 vellers Lewis and Clark, on their expedition to the Pacific 

 ocean. It is allied to the «St. striatus^ and belongs to the same 

 subgenus, (Tamias, Illig.) but it is of a somewhat larger stature, 

 entirely destitute of the vertebral line, and is further distin- 

 guished by the lateral lines, commencing before the humerus 



* S. lateralis. Say. Above brownish-cinereous, intermixed with black- 

 ish; each side of the back a dull yellowish-white dilated line, broader be- 

 fore, margined above and beneath %vith black, originating upon the neck 

 anterior to the[humerus, and not attaining tlie origin of the tail; no ap- 

 pearance of a vertebral line; thigh, neck anterior to the tip of the white 

 line, and top of the head tinged with ferruginous; orbit whitish; tail short, 

 thin, with a submarginal blacli lice beneath; nails of (lie anterior feet 

 elongated; thumb tubercle furnished with a broad nail; sides dull yellow- 

 ish-white; beneath pale, intermixed with blackish. 



