common mammals of western Montana. 



27 



PINE SQUIRRELS AS TICK HOSTS. 



Pine squirrels living in good " tick country " are almost always 

 infested with young wood ticks, as many as 50 having heen found 

 on a single animal. It is therefore important that in fever districts 

 these squirrels he destroyed, at least around ranches. 



DESTRUCTION OF PINE SQUIRRELS. 



As a rule, pine squirrels can easily he killed off by shooting; and 

 they are readily caught in rat or steel traps baited with prunes, 

 raisins, or pork. They are rather difficult to poison, but the strych- 

 nine " biscuits " recommended in Formula II should prove an effec- 

 tive pine-squirrel poison if used early in spring. 



Fig. 18. — Woodchuck, which injures crops and spreads spotted fever. 



WOODCHUCKS. 



DISTRIBUTION. 



Woodchucks (fig. 18), sometimes' called "ground hogs," are locally 

 abundant in rocky situations along the edges of valleys in many parts 

 of western Montana. In the Bitterroot Valley they are especially 

 numerous in rock piles and around abandoned buildings along the 

 valley's edge. From one rock pile in a timothy field I took 15 wood- 

 chucks in 1910 and as many more in 1911 ; from under the buildings 

 of an unoccupied ranch at least a dozen were secured during these 

 two seasons, and in the stone wall surrounding a neglected orchard 

 I estimated that there were at least 30 adult woodchucks. 



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