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1969) . 'heir food mostly consists of buibs, roots and stems or aquatic <br /> vegetation. -Muskrat habitat in t!he study area is to the marshy <br /> area in the r#varian habitat; accord injly, their distribution and abundance <br /> is limited on the study area. <br /> Three Gunnison's prairie dog towns are located on the study area (A-ppendix <br /> A, �Iap 2) . These towns were formerly one large tovm but were divided by <br /> road construction and mining activities (personal com^zunication, May 31, <br /> 1979, :by Karo) . A total of 16 adult prairie dogs were observed during a <br /> black-footed ferret survey of these tDwns in late May, 1979. Gunnison's <br /> prairie dogs inhabit open grassy and brushy areas at high elevations, <br /> and are restricted in distribution to south-eastern Colorado (Lechleitner <br /> 1969) . <br /> AVIFAU-Na <br /> Passerine Beds. Breeding and resident wintering passerines in the Nucla <br /> study area were surveyed during early June, 1979 and January,1980 along 0.5 km <br /> transects placed vI t,'lin major vegetation types represented in the study area. <br /> The census technique was desicmed to quantify passerine abundance; however, <br /> all avian species, including raptors and game birds, observed along the <br /> transects were counted. The results of the breeding and wintering bird <br /> surveys are provided on computer print-outs in Appendix B, Part 2 for each <br /> of the five vegetation types sampled (grassland pasture, upland sagebrush, <br /> juniper, alfalfa field, and riparian) . These print-outs provide relative <br /> abundance indices (number of individuals/km) and macrohabitat affinities for <br /> each species encountered and Shannon-Weiner species diversity indices for <br /> each habitat sampled. A list of all avian species positively identified <br /> for the Nucla study area during this and previous studies is provided in <br /> Table 1. <br /> Two major topics are considered in the discussion of breeding and wdntering <br /> passerine birds. First, the relative importance to avifauna of each habitat <br /> type sampled is Described. Determination of importance focuses on three <br /> parameters: species diversity, composition, and abundance. Second, the <br /> occurrence, distribution and abundance of important passerine species is <br /> discussed. ?^portant species are defined as those with a high relative <br /> J u N X i 1980 <br />