STRIPED SPERMOPHILE. 



33 



irritable disposition. When it has been driven to take shelter in its 

 burrow it may be heard expressing its anger in a shrill and harsh rep- 

 etition of the syllable seeJc-seeJc. * * * The males fight when they 

 meet, and in their contests their tails are often mutilated. I observed 

 several individuals which had been recently injured in this way, and 

 it is rare to meet a male which has a tail equaling those of the females 

 in length." (Fauna Boreali- Americana, 1829, p. 177.) 



It is not surprising that an animal so characteristic of prairies should 

 not take kindly to trees. I never saw one try to climb a tree, and did 

 not suppose that such an attempt would prove successful, but Mr. 

 Ernest E. Thompson, in writing of their habits, says: u Although the 

 species is supposed to be strictly terrestrial, Mr. E. M. Christie and 

 myself twice observed a gopher climb up a low spruce tree in pursuit of a 

 bay- winged bunting (Poocoetes gramineus), that was perched on the top."* 



The Striped Spermophile depends for shelter and protection on bur- 

 rows which it digs in the ground. These burrows are about 2 inches 

 in diameter, descend steeply for a short distance, and then extend off 

 horizontally. Sometimes a hole longer than usual rises nearly to the 

 surface and then dips down siphon-like, leaving a wall between the 

 entrance and the nest. Many of them are short, and seem to be used 

 only to dodge into at the approach of danger, and a bucket of water 

 poured into one will often force out the occupant half drowned and 

 gasping for breath. The tunnels leading to the nests in which the 

 animals spend the winter and raise their young commonly extend 

 15 or 20 feet, but are not more than a foot, or at most 2 feet, below 

 the surface. Though many of the burrows open on smooth bare ground 

 with nothing to conceal them, the entrances are more commonly hidden 

 by a bunch of grass, and sometimes a dried weed, a piece of paper, or 

 an old rag is drawn over the entrance. 



During the breeding season these spermophiles are quiet and shy, 

 but in June and July when the half-grown young begin to make their 

 appearance above ground their voices are most frequently heard. The 

 parent and her young at this time are constantly calling back and forth, 

 and never wander far from one another. The- number of young in a 

 litter seems to vary from seven to ten. In some cases higher numbers 

 still have been reported. Mr. W. W. Gilman, of Stoughton, Dane 

 County, Wis., writes that while in Freeborn County, Minn., he exam- 

 ined a number of pregnant females of this species, and found the 

 embryos to number from nine to fourteen. None of those which I 

 have examined contained more than eight embryos, and the number of 

 mammary nipples of the female varied from eight to twelve. 



Richardson mentions a female killed, May 17, at Carlton House, on 

 the Saskatchewan River, that contained ten young.t 



Mr. Ernest E. Thompson, who has carefully observed the habits of 



* Trans. Hist, and Sci. Soc. of Manitoba, Xo. 23 (1886), 1887, p. 14. 

 t Fauna Boreali- Americana, 1829, p. 178. 

 4032— No. 4 3 



