_Specimens examined._--Total, 2: MV 7843/507, Chickaree Draw,
Prater Canyon, 1935, C.W. Quaintance and Lloyd White; [Female],
69264, no embryos, 1/4 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.