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Sierra Club Bulletin 



little distance; the long tail, which is not usually jerked ner- 

 vously about, as in so many species, but is waved sideways, 

 sinuously, in rather catlike fashion. The last mentioned is an 

 especially good recognition mark, even at some little distance. 

 Total length is from ten to twelve inches. The tail, to end of 

 hairs, is from five to six inches, longer in proportion to total 

 length than in the other species of the region. 



Probably the most abundant species of chipmunk in the 

 Kings River section of the Sierra Nevada is the Tahoe Chip- 

 munk (Eutamias speciosus frater) ,2igd\n a local race of a wide- 

 spread species (Eutamias speciosus) occurring in the higher 

 mountains from southern California to Lake Tahoe. This is 

 an animal of the middle altitudes, not seen until the brushy 

 home of the Mariposa Chipmunk is left behind, and seldom 

 venturing up into the rocky habitat of the Alpine Chipmunk of 

 the extreme heights. 



At Hume, near General Grant National Park, the species 

 was extremely abundant, fairly swarming about the corrals 

 and barns of the settlement, while out in the woods innumer- 

 able havens of refuge were afforded the chipmunks by the 

 piles of brush the lumbermen left behind them. Hume and 

 Horse Corral Meadow seemed about the proper altitude and 

 the types of country that suited them best. On another visit to 

 the mountains the species was found in great numbers in the 

 higher parts of Sequoia National Park, a few miles to the 

 southward. A few were seen in Kings River Canon, together 

 with the Mariposa Chipmunks, and some ventured up into the 

 lower part of the Alpine Chipmunk's domain, but they were 

 but stragglers, the metropoHs of the Tahoe Chipmunk lying be- 

 tween these extremes. 



This species lacks the suspicious nature of the Mariposa 

 Chipmunk. He is alert enough, and wary in reason, but gives 

 his confidence judiciously and soon responds to friendly ad- 

 vances. When danger really threatens, however, he is off like 

 a flash, taking refuge, preferably, in the trees, and usually mak- 

 ing for some friendly hollow. The chipmunk has real need of 

 all his speed and all his acuteness, for there are enemies at 

 every hand who are quite his equal in these respects, who, in- 

 deed, must necessarily overreach him occasionally to insure 



