Mammals of Washington, Volume 2: University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural HistoryDalquest, Walter Woelber
Science
Mammals of Washington, Volume 2: University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History
Dalquest, Walter Woelber
Mammals -- Washington (State)
I have watched these chipmunks eat the berries of the red huckleberry
(_Vaccinium parvifolium_), salmonberry (_Rubus spectabilis_),
thimbleberry (_Rubus parviflorus_), devil's club (_Fatsia horrida_), and
mountain ash (_Sorbus cascadensis_ and _S. occidentalis_). Of these, the
blue huckleberry (_Vaccinum occidentale_ and _V. membranaceum_) are
probably the most important to the chipmunks. At Sherman Creek Pass, in
the Kettle River Mountains, Ferry County, I watched a pika (_Ochotona_)
busily harvesting wild raspberry plants (_Rubus leucodermis_), and
laying them in a pile under a rock. A yellow-pine chipmunk waited under
the rock and ate the ripe berries from each branch as it was laid away.
A brood nest of the yellow-pine chipmunk was discovered by Shaw (1944:
274) at Hurricane Ridge, Clallam County. The entrance was a hole 1-1/2
inches in diameter constructed among the grass and alpine flowers of a
meadow at 6,450 feet elevation. The burrow itself was 2 inches in
diameter, and had a turning-around pocket 9 inches from the entrance.
The nest was situated just beneath the sod, 4 feet from the entrance.
The nest chamber was 7 inches high by 7-1/2 inches in diameter and in
the shape of a "round-bottomed flask." It was filled snugly with nest
material composed of a grasslike sedge (_Carex spectabilis_) mixed with
feathers of the blue grouse. Earth excavated from the nest cavity had
been forced upwards through the sod in the manner of a mole in forming
mounds. The single burrow was unbranched. Seven young of about 16 to 18
days of age were found in the nest.
=Tamias amoenus caurinus= (Merriam)
_Eutamias caurinus_ Merriam, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, p.
352, October 4, 1898.
_Eutamias amoenus caurinus_ Howell, Jour. Mamm., 3:184, August 4,
1922.
_Tamias amoenus caurinus_ Ellerman, Fam. and Genera of Living
Rodents, British Mus. Nat. Hist., p. 432, June 8, 1940.
_Type._--Obtained at timber-line, head of Sol Duc River, Olympic
Mountains, Clallam County, Washington, by C. H. Merriam and Vernon
Bailey on August 27, 1897; type in United States National Museum.
_Racial characters._--Small size and pale color.
_Measurements._--Seven males and 3 females from Deer Park, Clallam
County, average: total length 207.4; length of tail 93.2; hind foot
32.5; ear 16.
_Distribution._--Higher parts of the Olympic Mountains, from Deer
Park (W. W. D.) south to head of Dosewallips River (Howell,
1929:77).
=Tamias amoenus felix= Rhoads
_Tamias quadrivittatus felix_ Rhoads, Amer. Nat., 29:941, October,
1895.
_Eutamias quadrivittatus felix_ Miller and Rehn, Proc. Boston Soc.
Nat. Hist., 30:44, December 27, 1901.
_Eutamias amoenus felix_ Howell, Jour. Mamm., 3:184, August 4,
1922.
_Tamias amoenus felix_ Ellerman, Fam. and Genera of Living
Rodents, British Mus. Nat. Hist., p. 432, June 8, 1940.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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