Spermophilus canus Merriam, 1898 . Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 12:70.

TYPE LOCALITY: "Antelope, Wasco County, Oregon." [USA] .

DISTRIBUTION: USA: E Oregon, except NE and SE corners; extreme NW Nevada; W side of Snake River in WC Idaho.

SYNONYMS: vigilis (Merriam, 1913).

COMMENTS: Subgenus Spermophilus (Hall, 1981:383) . Includes vigilis (see Vorontsov and Lyapunova, 1970; Nadler et al., 1984, wherein that junior synonym was employed as the species name). Formerly considered a subspecies of townsendii (Hall, 1981:383- 384), but differs in diploid chromosome number (Nadler et al., 1984). No hybridization between canus (2n=46) and adjacent mollis (2n=38) or townsendii (2n=36) has been reported (Rickart et al., 1985). Reviewed (in part) by Rickart (1987), as S. townsendii .