SCIURID.E— SCIURUS OUDSON1US AND VARS. 685 



Geographical variation. — Subspecies hudsonius, as already noted, 

 varies considerably in size and color with locality. As a rule, northern 

 specimens are considerably larger than southern ones; but, on the other hand, 

 New England specimens are much smaller than those from Central Pennsyl- 

 vania or than those from localities farther west having the same latitude as New 

 England Specimens from Minnesota and thence westward are among the 

 largest examined. Northern specimens, as also those from the Black Hills, 

 arc paler or more fulvous than specimens from the eastern portions of the 

 United States; they are, at the same time, more distinctly annulated below 

 with black. Specimens from the Eastern and Middle States are hence more 

 intensely white below and more rufous above than those from more northern 

 localities. Var. richardsoni appears to attain its greatest degree of special- 

 ization in the Bitter Root Range, near the eastern boundary of Idaho Terri- 

 tory, ranging more toward the hudsonius phase farther eastward, and toward 

 fremonti and douglassi respectively southward and westward. Var. douglassi 

 varies quite markedly with the latitude, southern specimens being smaller 

 than northern ones, and somewhat differently colored, especially in being 

 less annulated with black below. Var. fremonti appears to be more constant 

 in its coloration than either of the others, and the differences presented by 

 different specimens appear to be more individual than geographical. 



Synonymy and nomenclature. — Neither of the varieties of Sciurus 

 hudsonius has any very prominent synonyms. The eastern form was at first 

 referred by Forster to the Sciurus vulgaris of Europe. Erxleben, in 1777, 

 likewise referred it to S. vulgaris, but distinguished it as var. hudsonicus. 

 The following year it was described by Pallas under the name Sciurus hud- 

 sonius, by which name it has ever since been currently known. Ord (accord- 

 ing to Baird), in 1815, applied to it the name carolinus. The name rubro- 

 lineatus of Desmarest is the name of a nominal species, recognized by only 

 a few writers, referable to hudsonius. Following the strict rule of priority, 

 the name should probably be written hudsonicus (from Erxleben), this being 

 the first distinctive appellation given to this form, it having apparently a pri- 

 ority of one year over hudsonius. 



The next form designated by a systematic name is var. douglassi, first 

 named by Gray in 1836, and first described by Bachman in 1838. It is the 

 "Small Brown Squirrel" of Lewis and Clarke, and the "Sciurus hudsonius 

 var. /?" of Richardson, based on Lewis and Clarke's description. Gray 



