
530 THE FAUNA OF MONTANA TERRITORY. 
the Cœur d’Alefie Pass, 5,100 feet above the sea, this squir- 
rel abounded. It seemed to feed on the seeds of every 
coniferous tree without preference for any one, and obtained 
the seeds by dropping down the cones, from near the tree 
tops, to the ground, where it could open them at leisure, 
usually sitting on a log or low branch to do this, after 
having bitten off a number of cones. I obtained the best 
specimens of cones of Abies amabilis by the aid of the squir- 
rels, who frequently came down when they saw me looking 
about the tree, and scolded with the same fearlessness shown 
by the Chickaree (8. Hudsonius) and the more western K. 
Douglassii. Indeed this animal exactly resembles the latter 
in habits, cries, and general appearance, both differing very 
little from the Chickaree in these respects. In the cool cli- 
mate of these northern forests, they seem rarely to build 
summer nests like the Atlantic species, though. such nests 
are sometimes seen in the branches. ` 
In the Rocky Mountains I found no nuts except those of 
the pine, even hazel-nuts being absent south of Fort Col- 
ville, and acorns east of the Columbia. : 
Missourt Caremo (Tamias quadrivittatus). This little 
Chipmunk I saw in the bare rocky hills of the Mauvaise Ter- 
ritory, fifty miles west of Fort Union, Nebraska, and thouga 
I saw none near Fort Benton, I doubt not but they inhabit 
every rocky locality from Fort Union, west, as Ifo 
them again as soon as we reached the foot of the Rocky 
Mountains, and thenceforward not a day passed without my 
seeing many of them, until I got fairly out of sight of tree 
on the Great Plain of the Columbia. I can confirm the T°- 
mark made by me in 1853, as to the Chipmunks see? " 
the Yakima valley being of this species, from their color, 
habits, and want of the shrill alarm-cry of the T. Tow p 
s 
on the plains and in the forest differ so much in CO 
habits, that. had I not seen many intermediate § 
should certainly consider them distinct species; 40 a 



