58 NEW- YORK FAUNA. 



Characteristics. Grey above, lighter beneath ; sides of head and legs tinged with rufous. 

 Ears not pencilled, soiled whitish behind. Tail rather longer than the head 

 and body, edged with white. Length 15*0. 



Description. Forehead arched. Ears somewhat pointed, but rounded, and covered with 

 short hairs ; no pencil of hairs at the tips. Whiskers black, as long as the head. Tail large 

 and bushy. 



Color. This is subject to great variations, depending upon age and season ; but the following 

 may be considered as tolerably constant : Above, bluish grey. Chin, throat and all beneath, 

 white. The sides of the head and ears, the flanks, anterior part of the forelegs and the sides 

 of the hind legs of a ferruginous or fawn-color of various shades of intensity, generally most 

 conspicuous on the hind legs. Frequently on the lower part of the cheeks a bright fulvous 

 spot, and occasionally an obscure stripe of brown on the back, reaching to the base of the 

 tail. Tail edged with whitish. — Head and body, 8 - 0. Tail, 8 '5. 



Young. Space round the eyes, the nape, foreshoulder and flanks light reddish brown. 

 Summit of the head, outer parts of the legs, the back and rump blackish. Belly and inner 

 part of the legs brown. Tail blackish, intermixed with fulvous, and light fulvous on the 

 margin. These are usually mistaken for hybrids between the black and grey. 



Var. a. All the upper parts of the body tawny. 



Var. b. Entirely dark brownish or black. This is taken frequently for the Black Squirrel, 



and by others supposed to be a hybrid between the little grey and black, but erroneously 



so. Common in various counties. 

 Var. c. A dark stripe on the flanks, margined above with reddish. Rockland county. 

 Var. d. Two reddish lateral stripes in both the adult and young, but more distinct in the 



latter. 

 Var. e. Abdomen bright ferruginous. 



This well known little animal is found in every forest abounding in nuts of various kinds. 

 They prepare their retreats in the hollow part of some tree, at a distance from the ground, 

 and produce from four to six at a birth. In the season, they are exceedingly irritable and 

 pugnacious ; but the popular belief that the males emasculate each other, is unfounded, 

 these parts (in the young more especially) being often retracted within the abdomen. 



One of the most remarkable peculiarities of this species, is its singular and distant migra- 

 tion in large bodies. Bachman {Op. sup. cit. p. 226) has furnished an interesting account 

 of an extraordinary migration of this sort, which he witnessed in the autumn of 1808, a short 

 distance above Albany. On that occasion, troops of squirrels suddenly and unexpectedly 

 made their appearance. They swam the Hudson in various places between Waterford and 

 Saratoga. Those which were noticed crossing the river, were swimming deeply and awk- 

 wardly, with their bodies and tails wholly submerged. Many were drowned ; and those 

 which were so fortunate as to reach the opposite bank, were so wet and fatigued, that they 

 were readily killed with clubs. On that occasion, their migration did not extend farther than 



