Sierra Club Bulletin 



lungs, and at the same time the ears are twitched upward, so 

 that in face view their outhnes catch the observer's eye. 



For several months of each year snow covers everything 

 within the range of the cony. The various species of animals 

 which dwell there meet the resulting food scarcity in a number 

 of different ways. Most of the birds emigrate, the deer and 

 coyote descend to lower altitudes, the marmot hibernates, the 

 gopher constructs tunnels through the snow, and the white- 

 tailed jack-rabbit turns white and develops "snow-shoes" on its 

 feet so that it can forage above the snow. But the cony has 

 still another method of meeting the situation. 



During the late summer and early autumn the cony is busy at 

 all hours of the day gathering materials to serve as food while it 

 is imprisoned among the rocks beneath the snow. It cuts and 

 stores away grasses and sedges and other plants which grow in 

 the vicinity of its home. These are carried into the rock-slides, 

 and stored in a dry, well-drained, shady yet airy place, sheltered 

 above from snow and rain, and free from the danger of running 

 water below — an ideal barn from the standpoint of a farmer. 

 This treatment is such as to preserve unfaded the natural col- 

 ors of the dried plants, and the fragrance is that of well-cured 

 hay free from mold. One such "hay-pile" seen by the senior 

 author on Warren Peak, Mono County, September 26, 191 5, 

 was situated under a huge flat rock and comprised about half a 

 cubic yard of material. Samples from a similar but smaller pile 

 included twigs and needles of the lodgepole pine, sprigs of 

 "ocean spray" (Holodiscus discolor dumosa), two or more al- 

 pine species of sedge ( Car ex), With, their characteristically rough 

 stems of triangular cross-section, a grass (Poa), and an epilo- 

 bium. The nearest sedge was twenty-five feet down-hill in a 

 wet place, while the nearest holodiscus was at least seventy-five 

 feet up the steep slope adjacent. Currant and red-elderberry 

 bushes grew nearer than any of the other plants named, but 

 neither had been touched, showing that the cony exercises some 

 selection in the choice of its food materials. 



When foraging the cony secures as large an amount of cut 

 greens as can be held crosswise in its mouth and then carries 

 the bundle to the "barn." Often stems of considerable length 

 are transported in this manner, and, as the animal moves about, 



