648 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



The breeding season is indicated by the time of appearance of the 

 young aboveground. In Scott Valley, Siskiyou County, where the 

 species is abundant, very small young were seen abroad on June 8 

 (1911). At Winslow, Glenn County, young one-fourth to one-half 

 grown were captured on June 16 (1912). At 6,800 feet altitude on the 

 Saloon Creek Divide, in the Scott Mountains, Siskiyou County, July 

 10 (1911), nursing females were captured, but no young were yet out 

 (L. Kellogg, MS). It is thus probable that at the lower altitudes the 

 young are born during the last half of May, while at the highest levels 

 they are not born until at least a month later. Only one litter is reared 

 each year. 



Unfortunately we have no facts of our own to offer in regard to 

 size of litter. We have an idea that fewer young are born each year 

 than in the case of the California Ground Squirrel, judging roughly 

 from the numbers of young seen aboveground, about five. But this is 

 almost pure conjecture. F. E. Garlough, of the United States Bio- 

 logical Survey, is under the impression (interviewed September 7, 

 1918) that litters in the lowlands average close to eight, while in the 

 mountains five is the usual number. He has known of as few as two 

 and as many as fourteen embryos having been found in pregnant 

 females. 



The following definite data on file in the Museum of Vertebrate 

 Zoology show some of the kinds of food selected by the Douglas Ground 

 Squirrel and also the quantity in which each of these kinds may be 

 gathered at one time. A male squirrel taken on Dry Creek where 

 crossed by the Oroville-Chico road, in Butte County, May 31, 1912, 

 contained in its cheek pouches 29 seeds of a wild lupine (Lupinus 

 micranthus) . Three others taken on Butte Creek, near Chico, June 3 

 and 5, 1912, contained in their cheek pouches materials as follows: 

 male, 12 seeds of milk thistle (Silybum marianum) ; female, 219 grains 

 of barley and one head of English plantain (Plantago lanceolata) ; 

 female, 142 grains of barley. The cheek-pouch contents of two squirrels 

 taken on Mill Creek, near Tehama, June 12, 1912, consisted of, respec- 

 tively : female, 121 seeds of bur clover (Medicago hispida) and 70 small 

 unidentified seeds, part loose and part in three whole pods ; female, 181 

 seeds of brome-grass (Bromus carinatus) and one piece of an acorn. 

 Two squirrels taken in the hills three miles west of Vacaville, July 3 

 and 6, 1912, contained in their cheek-pouches : female, 29 seeds of Napa 

 thistle (Centaur ea melitensis) and 30 seeds of bur clover; male, 82 

 seeds of bur clover, 4 seeds of Napa thistle and one cherry pit. A 

 male taken three miles south of Covelo, Mendocino County, July 20, 

 1913, held in its cheek-pouches 14 whole fruits and 103 separate seeds 

 of the common manzanita (Arctostaphylos manzanita), as also a few 

 small unidentified seeds of two kinds. 



From all sources comes the testimony that this species takes barley 

 and wheat with particular avidity. Its storage propensities are highly 

 developed, and it would be interesting to see actual figures as to the 

 quantity of grain garnered underground in one autumn season. Where 

 they invade apricot orchards, as in the foothill district of the Warner 

 Mountains near Alturas, these squirrels climb the trees and take out 

 the pits, discarding the pulp of the fruit. 



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