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Sierra Club Bulletin 



quite different manner from the slower undulations performed 

 by the Mariposa Chipmunk. In coloration the Tahoe Chip- 

 munk is of a brighter, more ruddy appearance, with the stripes 

 along back and sides conspicuous to view at some little dis- 

 tance. Finally, this chipmunk will permit of a near enough 

 approach so that coloration and other features are easily ap- 

 parent, while with the Mariposa Chipmunk it is for the most 

 part a mere chance if one obtains a close enough and leisurely 

 enough view for satisfactory observation. 



Of all the animals of the California Sierras there is none 

 that makes a stronger appeal to the sympathies than the little 

 Alpine Chipmunk (Eutamias alpinus), that tiny dweller of the 

 inhospitable heights. Delicate and fragile, to all appearances 

 as unfit for hardship as a butterfly, he still has made his home 

 in the most forbidding portion of a region sufficiently rugged 

 at the best. This habitat comprises the highest parts of the 

 Sierra Nevada, from Tulare County north to Kearsarge Pass, 

 or perhaps farther, and extends from a little below the timber- 

 line practically to the summits of the loftiest peaks. Abundant 

 opportunities of making acquaintance with the Alpine Chip- 

 munk were found in the region about Bullfrog Lake, between 

 Kings River Canon and Kearsarge Pass, and he is such a 

 friendly little fellow that we felt that we were becoming quite 

 fully acquainted with the more public phases of his existence. 

 Of the privacy of his home life, however, but little is known, 

 as is the case with so many animals, both large and small, and 

 there is still to be disclosed the manner of home he makes, and, 

 also, just how he spends the long rigorous winters of the moun- 

 tain-tops, to say nothing of the host of details that suggest 

 themselves in this connection. 



Alpine Chipmunks were constant visitors to our camp at 

 Bullfrog Lake, about 10,000 feet altitude, and just below the 

 upper limit of upright timber. We were there in September, 

 when the short summer was already drawing to a close — a thin 

 film of ice formed on the lake each night — and the chipmunks 

 were evidently beginning to bestir themselves in preparation 

 for the cold weather that was coming. All about the edges of 

 the lake they were busy in the little clumps of dwarf willow, 

 scrambling up into the branches and bearing away bundles of 



