The Yosemite Cony 



163 



the ends of these stems trail along beside or behind him. Many 

 of the pieces found in the hay-piles were over a foot in length, 

 and one piece of cut sedge measured forty-five inches in length ; 

 but this latter had been folded several times. A hay-pile seen 

 near the head of the McClure fork of the Merced River con- 

 tained nearly a bushel of material, and, judging from the fact 

 that six adult-sized conies and one juvenile were trapped at this 

 pile, it may be that hay-piles are community or at least family 

 afifairs. 



While not foraging and not occupied beneath the surface of 

 the slide, the cony sits hunched up, usually with its back higher 

 than its head, in some protected place under a large overhang- 

 ing rock. The post usually selected is the crest of a backward- 

 slanting rock where the animal can enjoy a wide angle of view 

 and yet be in a position, when danger threatens, to dart back 

 into the shelter of the slide. These perches, or observation- 

 posts, are marked by accumulations of droppings of an oblately 

 spherical shape, like those of a rabbit but much smaller, and by 

 whitish stains due to the action of the Hquid excrement on the 

 granite. When a cony comes to "attention" on an observation- 

 post the head is often raised, the nose wiggled, and the feet 

 "shuffled," all suggestive of mannerisms of a rabbit; but the 

 movements of the head are much quicker. The hobbling gait 

 reminds one somewhat of the hopping of a brush-rabbit. The 

 cony moves rapidly and with apparent ease almost everywhere 

 in a slide, even over very steep and smooth rock surfaces. We 

 have never seen one of these animals assume the erect posture 

 which is common to rabbits. 



The cony shares its rock-slide home with the bushy-tailed 

 wood-rat (Neotoma cinerea cinerea) and the Sierra marmot 

 (Marmota Uaviventris sierrae), but we have learned nothing to 

 indicate that these two large rodents molest the cony in any way. 

 In the matter of enemies, there are only three carnivorous ani- 

 mals which dwell in the same situations as the cony and which 

 we have reason to believe may prey upon it. These are the 

 Sierra pine-marten (Maries caurina sierrae) and the least and 

 mountain weasels (Mustela muricus and Mustela arizonensis) . 

 At Vogelsang Lake, before sunrise of August 31, 1915, two 

 conies were heard "bleating" vociferously as they ran excitedly 



