626 



THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



or bulbs which they have discovered, their cheeks are seen to be bulging 

 with the contents of these pouches. They are able to operate their 

 teeth and lips even when these pouches are copiously distended. The 

 cheek pouches of the California Ground Squirrel are especially well 

 developed and this, we think, is correlated with the pronounced seed 

 gathering and storing propensities of this species. The following rec- 

 ords of cheek-pouch contents, as secured from specimens collected, 

 contribute further to our knowledge of the kinds of food of this animal 

 and also of the quantity in which these may be gathered. 



A female taken in a stubble field near Walnut Creek, Contra Costa 

 County, July 26, 1918, held in her cheek pouches 26 seeds of bur clover. 

 A male taken August 15, 1918, at the same place had 78 seeds of bur 

 clover and one seed of needle grass. Two other males had one and 

 three bur-clover seeds, respectively. Another female taken at the same 

 time and place contained 212 seeds of bur clover and 12 seeds of some 

 kind of wild grass. Another male held 97 grains of barley and three 

 bur-clover seeds. A ground squirrel taken at Cisco, Placer County, on 

 October 9, 1913, was carrying 92 seeds of the green manzanita (Arcto- 

 staphylos patula), while a squirrel secured near Pleasant Valley, Mari- 

 posa County, on May 28, 1915, had dug up and was carrying in its 

 pouches 12 bulbs of a species of wild hyacinth (Brodicea hyacinthina) . 

 At El Portal, Mariposa County, a squirrel was secured with three large 

 acorns of the golden oak in its cheek pouches. 



"We will now consider those feeding habits which make the California 

 Ground Squirrel come into conflict more directly with man's interests. 

 "Of cultivated nuts, almonds and walnuts are preferred; of other 

 crops, apples, prunes, peaches, apricots, figs, olives, . . . the seeds of 

 cantaloupes, watermelons and citron melons, and all the grains are eaten 

 whenever they are to be had, and green alfalfa and clover are sometimes 

 taken" (Merriam, 1910, p. 5). Frank Stephens (1906, p. 66) has 

 summed up the food taken by this animal as follows: "The food is 

 principally of a vegetable nature, preferably grain and other seeds, 

 fruit, potatoes, green plants, etc. Eggs of poultry and wild birds are 

 relished." We have heard considerable testimony from ranchers to 

 the effect that individual ground squirrels in different localities have 

 learned to raid henneries, so that the above statement is not exceptional. 



A great deal of damage is done by California Ground Squirrels each 

 year in orchards and vineyards. The following instances, given by 

 Merriam (1910, p. 6) are typical of such depredations. "Ground 

 squirrels are particularly fond of green almonds and of the pits of 

 green peaches and apricots, eating these from the time the kernels begin 

 to form until the fruit is ripe, thus doing serious damage. They are 

 very destructive to apples also, and in places in the foothills of the 

 Colfax- Auburn region are said to take fully half the crop. ... In the 

 fall of 1907 E. A. Goldman reported that they were doing serious dam- 

 age to young vineyards about Orosi, in Tulare County, by biting off the 

 leaves and tender shoots of the vines. ... In the orange groves 

 between Porterville and Springville, in Tulare County, it is reported 

 that they occasionally gnaw the bark of the orange trees and sometimes 

 cut the fruit and carry it off. Besides destroying nuts and fresh fruits 

 they attack drying prunes and carry off large quantities." 



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