1008.] 



MAMMALS. 



165 



from >pecimens taken by Drummond on the Kocky Mountains near 

 the sources of the ^ Elk ' (Athabaska) .« While in that region in 

 1896, J. Alden Loring found the animals rather common in Smoky 

 Valley, 50 miles north of Jasper House. They were extremely shy, 

 probably on account of being harassed so much by bears, which, in 

 their attempts to capture the spermophiles, had dug great holes in 

 many places. They seemed to prefer bushy flats to hillsides. Seven 

 sj^ecimens were taken on August 27. Later in the summer he found 

 a skull in the mountains about 25 miles west of Henry House. 



Most of the specimens taken are young of the year, though some 

 apparently are full-grown. The older ones have the general color 

 of the back yellowish brow:?, vermiculated with black; upper surface 

 of thighs and hind feet, and face as far back as the eyes, bright brick 

 red: lower parts tinged with ochraceous buff; nape, sides, and rump 

 flecked with gray, evidently the fall pelage coming in; tail fringed 

 with gray. The younger specimens are similar, but lighter in color. 

 These specimens agree closely Avith skins from various points in 

 Idaho, collected in tlie ty])e region of the 'burrowing squirrel' of 

 Lewis and Clark, the Arctomys rolxmhianjis of Ord.'^ The largest 

 specimen taken by Loring measures: Total length, 345; tail verte- 

 bra^. 9?,: hind foot. 58. 



Citellus (Ictidomys) franklini (Sabine). Franklin Spermophile. 



This ground squirrel occurs in the region now under review only 

 in central Alberta. It is abundant along the road from a fe^v miles 

 north of Edmonton. Alberta, to Sturgeon River, and I saw a few 

 individuals to the r.orthward of that point. During the first days 

 of May, 1901, Avhen we ]);i~-(m1 through this section, the animals were 

 very active and had evidently been out of hibernation some time. 

 They were common in the same region also in 1903. They frequented 

 brushy tracts and the borders of cultivated fields, and were doing- 

 considerable damage to the sprouting grain. Many w^ere seen during 

 our return trip through the region in September, but the species was 

 then less conspicuous. A single specimen was taken on each of our 

 spring trips. 



J. Alden Loring took a specimen at Edmonton September 19, 1894- 

 It was killed beneath a shock of oats, where it had collected about 

 half a joeck of grain. It is an adult male, and measured: Total 

 length 294, tail vertebrse 147, hind foot 55. 



The type locality of this species is sometimes given as Cumberland 

 House, probably from Sabine's statement that it was obtained there,^ 

 but the correct locality was evidently Carlton House, since Richard- 



Fauna Boreali-Americana, I, p. 161, 1829. 

 ^Seo MeiTiani, X. A. Fauna, No. 5, p. 39, 1891. 

 Narrative of Journey to Polar Sea, Appendix, p. 662, 1823. 



