136 GLIRES. 
nately wanting; but the characters of the skin seem to indicate near affinity to the next 
species, from which, as well as from all other known American Sciuride, it is at once 
distinguished by the conspicuous transverse barring of its long narrow tail. 
Nothing is yet known of its distribution or habits. 
2. Spermophilus grammurus. 
Sciurus grammurus, Say, Long’s Exp. ii. p. 72 (1828, descr. orig., fide Baird)*. 
Spermophilus grammurus, Baird, Mamm. N. Am. p. 810, pl. iv.’; Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. Surv. ii. 
Mamm. p. 88°; de Saussure, Rev. et Mag. Zool. 1860, p. 56%; Allen, Mon. N.-Am. 
Rodent. p. 826°. 
Spermophilus macrurus, Bennett, P. Z. 8. 1833, p. 41 (descr. orig.)°; Dugés, La Nat. i. p. 187”. 
Spermophilus couchii, Baird, Proc. Ac. Philad. 1855, p. 332 (descr. orig.)®; Mamm. N. Am. p. 811, 
pl. Ixxxi.°; Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. Surv. ii. Mamm. p. 38”. 
Ardilla of Mexicans ® (common to the Squirrels). 
Hab. Nortu America, western regions, from Oregon southwards®.—Muxico (Deppe, 
Mus. Berol.), Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon (Couch, U.S. Nat. Mus.8), Victoria (Ber- 
lander, ibid.”), Guanajuato, Guadalajara (Dugés’). 
The Lined-tailed Spermophile differs from all its congeners, except the next, in its 
Squirrel-like appearance, which it owes to its large pointed ears and long bushy tail; 
in Mexico it consequently shares the Spanish name of Ardil/a. In coloration it is very 
variable, and three tolerably well-marked races have been described as distinct species 
under the names of S. grammurus (Say), S. beecheyi (Richardson), and S. douglassi(Rich.). 
Mr. Allen, however, has shown that they cannot be satisfactorily separated :—‘‘ between 
beecheyi and douglassi the intergradation is most thorough, while deecheyt passes gradu- 
ally into grammurus”*. Bennett’s S. macrurus®, from Western Mexico, is referred by 
Mr. Allen to his “ var. beecheyi;” but on an examination of the type in the British 
Museum I find that it is a somewhat dark example of the typical form of 8. 
grammurus, with which phase S. couchii, Baird, appears also to be identical. 
The range of the species seems to extend throughout Western North America, from 
Washington Territory to the Mexican States of Jalisco and Guanajuato, where it was 
recorded by Dr. Dugés’. It is very abundant in California; and an interesting account 
of its habits, as observed there, is given by Dr. Elliott Coues in the first volume of the 
‘American Naturalist’ (p. 359), under the name of S. eecheyi. He states that it forms 
large colonies, and that its general manners are much like those of the Prairie-dog. 
‘The burrows usually occur in clusters, and under little mounds or hillocks of dirt 
formed by the soil heaped up during their excavation; but single ones are scattered in 
every direction. Upon these earthworks the animals may be seen at all times, sitting 
upright and motionless as statues, their fore paws drooped and their eyes intently fixed 
on the passer-by; or, when no suspicious object appears, lying and basking in the sun, 
or playing merrily with each other on the ramparts of their citadels.” 
