SCIURID^— SCIURUS HUDSONIUS VAR. HUDSONICTS. G75 



distinctly ringed with black. Young specimens having the black lateral line 

 wholly lack the red dorsal stripe, or have it only faintly indicated. In 

 autumnal specimens, the black lateral line is faintly indicated, and the 

 middle of the back has the dorsal stripe obscurely defined. Winter speci- 

 mens, as a rule, are decidedly redder than summer specimens. Examples 

 from the same locality, collected at the same season, vary greatly in respect 

 to the tint of the red dorsal band, as well as in respect to its extent. No. 1484 

 (Coll. M. C. Z.), a winter specimen from Maine, has the dorsal band very broad 

 and of a light yellowish-red ; this specimen is one of the lightest of the 

 whole series. Others, however, are scarcely darker, imperceptibly grading 

 into No. 2491 (Coll. M. C. Z.), also from Maine (but taken in November), in 

 which the dorsal stripe is dark red, annulated with black, the red being nearly 

 as dark as in the lighter phases of var. richardsoni. 



The lower surface is generally pure white, with the hairs dusky at the 

 base ; sometimes grayish-white, in consequence, in part, of the duskiness of 

 the base of the hairs being only partly hidden by the white tips, and in part 

 from the white tips of the hairs being annulated with black. In a large 

 proportion of the specimens, the hairs of the lower surface are in part annu- 

 lated near the tips with black ; in some specimens, nearly all are so annulated, 

 giving a distinctly grayish aspect to the ventral surface; in many others, a 

 close inspection is necessary in order to discover any that are annulated ; not 

 a few are absolutely without dusky annulations. Summer specimens with a 

 black lateral line have the ventral surface intensely white, the white extending 

 nearly to the base of the hairs. The dusky annulations are more developed 

 in northern specimens than in southern; but Massachusetts specimens fre- 

 quently present them. They are more common in specimens from Maine, 

 while in specimens from Nova Scotia, Labrador, and the Fur Countries these 

 dusky annulations form a conspicuous feature of the coloration. 



As already noted, the color of the feet varies from pale fulvous-gray to 

 rusty-golden. The general color of the dorsal surface (including the upper 

 surface of the tail) varies from quite pure gray to pale fulvous, annulated with 

 black. The ears are generally dusky or blackish on the dorsal surface, washed 

 with fulvous or rufous; in winter, bushy-haired and penciled; in summer, 

 covered merely with short hairs. 



In summer, the soles of the feet are naked, often wholly so to the heel; 

 in winter, they are wholly thickly furred, only the tubercles at the base cf 



