402 



Sierra Club Bulletin 



it is quite possible for anyone to learn to recognize some of the 

 more outstanding species, especially so as it is seldom the case 

 that the closely related ones occur together at the same place. 

 The chipmunks of the Kings River section of the Sierra Ne- 

 vada may be taken as fair examples of the manner in which 

 several species occur in the same general region, all to be seen, 

 perhaps, in the course of a day, but each one, by choice of im- 

 mediate surroundings or mode of life, sufficiently isolated to 

 avoid too close competition with his relatives. In the follow- 

 ing account the specific peculiarities of the chipmunks noted 

 by the authors of this paper on a trip through this part of the 

 Sierra are briefly outlined, affording the interested visitor to 

 the mountains a means of distinguishing the species one from 

 the other. 



In entering the mountains from the west the first of this 

 group of mammals to be encountered is the Mariposa Chip- 

 munk (Eutamias merriami mariposae) . This is a local Sierran 

 race of the wide-spread Merriam Chipmunk (Eutamias merri- 

 ami), which, in its several varieties, occurs throughout the 

 lower timbered portions of California, southward from Yo- 

 semite in the Sierras, from San Francisco Bay along the coast. 

 Going into the mountains from the vicinity of Fresno or 

 Sanger, live-oak timber and brush is first encountered at about 

 1500 feet elevation. In all probability the Mariposa Chip- 

 munk extends down as far as this brush is found. It is an 

 animal of the underbrush primarily, scurrying into thickets 

 when alarmed, and taking the utmost advantage of such cover 

 in keeping out of view. This is the most shy and wary of any 

 of the chipmunks found in this part of the mountains, and it 

 may successfully elude observation for days, the only intimation 

 of its near presence being the hollow barking note heard issuing 

 from the thickets. At Dunlap (2000 feet elevation), in the 

 heart of the live-oak belt, about half-way from the foothills to 

 General Grant National Park, we were well within the home of 

 the Mariposa Chipmunk, but it took most assiduous search to 

 catch even an occasional gUmpse of one. 



In Kings River Canon we were more fortunate. The species 

 probably does not occur at all on the higher ridges traversed 

 in reaching the cafion, as in General Grant National Park, at 



