Specimens examined.—Total, 3: ad. ♂, 69263, skull only, dead on road, 1¾ mi. N Park Headquarters, 7275 feet, August 9, 1956; ad. ♀, 69261, no embryos, dead on road, ¾ mi. S and 1¾ mi. W Park Point, 8000 ft, August 8, 1956; ad. ♂, 69262, shot in brushy area on the burn on Wetherill Mesa 2 mi. NNW Rock Springs, 7900 ft., August 24, 1956.
Nuttall's cottontail in Colorado is in general the cottontail of the highlands, and the three localities just mentioned are on the top of the Mesa Verde.
Sciurus aberti mimus Merriam
Abert's Squirrel
Specimens examined.—Total, 2: ♂, MV 7872/507, prepared by D. Watson, killed by a car "near" the Park Well on September 24, 1937; ♀ (an unnumbered cased skin only), found dead "near" the Park Well on June 21, 1937.
Since 1934 these squirrels have been observed and recorded each year except in 1938, 1943, 1947, 1953, 1957, and 1958. The 77 reported observations can be grouped as follows: 11 from within a mile of the entrance to the Park, 14 from the North Rim or higher parts of canyons adjacent to it, 38 from Chapin Mesa south of Far View, and 14 not classifiable. The large number of observations on Chapin Mesa, chiefly in the vicinity of Park Headquarters, indicates the presence of more observers rather than more squirrels in this area.
Tamiasciurus hudsonicus fremonti (Audubon and Bachman)
Red Squirrel
Specimens examined.—Total, 2: MV 7843/507, Chickaree Draw, Prater Canyon, 1935, C.W. Quaintance and Lloyd White; ♀, 69264, no embryos, ¼ mi. NNW Middle Well, Prater Canyon, 7600 ft., August 31, 1956.
Red squirrels, or chickarees as they are called in Colorado, are known from only one place on the Mesa Verde, a side canyon on the west side of Prater Canyon above Middle Well. This side canyon has been named Chickaree Draw by C.W. Quaintance, who, with Lloyd White, studied the chickaree there in 1935. Quaintance reported the small colony at 7800 feet elevation in Douglas fir beneath which were found piles of cones from which the seeds had been eaten by the chickarees. On May 29, 1935, White observed a chickaree eating green oak leaves. On June 3, 1935, a nest was found in an old hollow snag up under the rim rock; there were four young squirrels in the nest. At least one nest was in a juniper and was composed mostly of oak leaves and grass. One nest twenty-five feet from the ground in a Douglas fir was composed of oak leaves and finely shredded cedar bark. In August, 1956, I found these squirrels in the same area and I shot one specimen. Other chickarees were seen and heard and the characteristic piles of parts of Douglas fir cones still attest to their presence. On September 1, 1953, D. Watson observed a pair of chickarees in Prater Canyon. The only other specific record in the files at the Park is of two seen in a branch of Soda Canyon in late 1956. Jean Pinkley tells me that chickarees have been observed in 1958 and 1959 at several other localities from Prater Canyon to the hill at the head of Navajo Canyon. The extent to which increased observations indicate an increase in number of chickarees is uncertain, since the amounts of time spent in the field and the percentage of observations recorded are not known.
Marmota flaviventris luteola A.H. Howell
Yellow-bellied Marmot