34 



SFERMOPHILES OF THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 



th is species in Manitoba, both in captivity and in a wild state, says that the 

 young are born late in May and usually number eight or nine. Kobert 

 Kennioott says: The young' are produced at the end of May or early 

 in June. I have observed from five to nine brought forth at a birth, 

 and I am informed of two instances in which ten were found in a nest; 

 but the number is variable, the usual number being six or seven. The 

 young at birth are naked, blind, and remarkably embryonic. Dr. Hoy, 

 who has observed them in confinement, says that they have no hair on 

 the body before they are twenty days old and the eyes do not open till 

 the thirtieth day. They continue to require nourishment and care of 

 the mother for a much longer period than most rodents. During sum- 

 mer they begin to dig shallow burrows and leave her before winter to 

 shift for themselves. Hibernating mammals require to be in good con- 

 dition when they retire to winter quarters, which females could scarcely 

 be did they rear young late in the season. This spermophile and prob- 

 ably the rest of the genus produce but one litter a year." (Eept. Comm. 

 Patents for 1856, pp. 76-77.) 



Appearance in spring. — Towards fall the spermophiles become very 

 fat. and after a few frosty nights, long before snow comes or the ground 

 freezes, they vanish into their holes and do not appear again until the 

 ground thaws in spring. In southern Minnesota they are rarely seen 

 above ground later than the 1st of October or in spring before the 1st 

 of April. Dr. Thomas S. Roberts, of Minneapolis, reports their first 

 appearance in the spring of 1877 on April 5; in 1878, March 17; and 

 in 1879, April 5. 



Robert Kennicott says: "To Mr. William Webb, of Fountaindale, 

 Winnebago County, 111., I am indebted for the following dates of this 

 spermophile's first appearance in spring, as noted in the meteorologi- 

 cal register of Mr. Edward Bebb: '1851, April 10; 1852, April 11; 

 1853, April 2; 1851, March 29; 1855, April 12.'" (Kept, Comm. Pat- 

 ents for 1856, p. 77.) Mr. Plummer L. Ong, of Hennepin, Putnam 

 County, 111., reports the first one seen at that place in the spring of 

 1884, on March 21. Mr. O. A. Kenyon, of McGregor, Clayton County, 

 Iowa, reports them as active on April 13, 1887, and Mr. Evelen Brown 

 gives the dates of their first appearance at Bathgate, Pembina County, 

 N. 1 >ak., as March 29. 1889, and April 16, 1890. At Beloit, Kit Carson 

 ( ountv. Colo.. Mr. H. G. Hoskin reports their first appearance in the 

 spring of 1890 on March 10. In Manitoba Mr. Ernest E. Thompson 

 reports their first appearance at Carberry in spring about April 20, and 

 says that they are not seen after the 1st of October.* 



Whether they remain dormant all of the six or seven months which 

 are spent underground is difficult to determine, but it seems probable 

 that they do not. Large stores of grain and uuts are carried into the 

 holes in autumn and stored close to their nests. Whether these are 



* Kept. Dept. Agl. and Statistics, Prov. of Manitoba, 1882, pp. 169-172. 



