Page:Natural History of the Ground Squirrels of California.djvu/100

680 of these and various seeds are then housed away in the ground for use the following spring when the animals come out of hibernation and food is difficult to find otherwise. One individual had its cheek-pouches crammed with fragments of a brown-colored fungus such as forms bracket-like outgrowths on the bark of dead trees and old logs. Our experience shows this article of diet to be much sought after by members of the squirrel tribe generally.

Then, too, the Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel eats meat, and even carrion, as we can testify from the persistency with which our meat-baited steel traps set for coyotes and other carnivores are sprung by the Copperheads. Indeed, it seems reasonable to infer that this ground squirrel would lose no opportunity to appropriate to its use the dead remains of any sort of animal. Around camp sites we have often received good evidence of the omnivorous nature of the Copperhead's diet from seeing them gathering the scattered barley from the ground where the horses had been fed and then gleaning the scraps of cooked meat as well as bread crumbs from our own table near by. In one case a "Callo" came again and again to gnaw at a bacon rind. The young, but a third grown, show almost as much industry in carrying away food as do the adults.

That not all the food gathered, over and above what is immediately eaten, is carried to some definitely located storehouse, is shown by an observation by W. P. Taylor (MS). On the summit of Cloud's Rest, Yosemite Park, a "Callo" was encountered which was so used to the almost daily visits of people as to have become remarkably tame. It would run up to within three feet of a person, take the dried fruit thrown down for it, stuffing its cheek-pouches to capacity, and then run off just a little ways. After digging out a little hollow in the ground with its front feet, it placed the fruit therein and proceeded to cover it up with earth, using its front feet again. Sitting over the spot, it reached out to gather in additional loose stones until the cache was effectually concealed. Such hiding places as these are probably used only temporarily, at times when an abundance of food is suddenly available, to be stowed safely from someone else's reach as soon as possible, and later reclaimed for more permanent salvage.

The young are born mostly in July, but as early as the last of June at the lowest altitudes of occurrence, and as late as the first week of August up near timber line. Young one-half grown were taken on Cannell Meadows, 7,500 feet altitude, Tulare County, on July 7, 1911; and young but a third grown were taken at Cottonwood Lakes, 11,000 feet, near Mount Whitney, August 31, 1911. These dates are the extremes in the considerable series we have for time of appearance of young. Young come above ground when they are as small as one-fourth adult size (as determined by weighing). There is but one litter each year. This probably averages close to five in number. Six females captured along the central Sierras, of dates June 12 to 28, contained 5, 2, 5, 6, 6 and 5 embryos, respectively. The number of mammæ (represented by nipples) is either four pairs or five pairs, but this number is not, as some persons think, any index to the number of young born.

The enemies of this squirrel probably include most of the carnivores of the higher mountains. Hair of a "Callo" was found in the feces