SCIURIDiE— SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS— SYNONYMY. 709 



writers have, notwithstanding, applied the name cinereus to the present spe- 

 cies. According to Professor Baird, Ord, in 1815, gave the name pennsyl- 

 vanicus to the black variety of the Gray Squirrel, though Godman* and subse- 

 quent authors have often applied to it the name niger, long previously given by 

 Linnaeus to the black phase of the Fox Squirrel. Gapper, in 1830, gave the 

 name leucotis to Canadian specimens of the common gray form. This name 

 I adopt for the northern variety, from its being exclusively applicable to the 

 northern form. While pennsylvanicus of Ord has fifteen years' priority over 

 this name, it was given to specimens from the Middle Atlantic States, and 

 hence from a locality bordering upon the habitat of the southern form, and con- 

 sequently the name is not strictly applicable to the northern type as devel- 

 oped in the Northern and Northeastern States and the Canadas. Audubon 

 and Bachman, not liking the name leucotis of Gapper, proposed, some twenty 

 years later, to substitute for it the name migratorius as being one far more 

 appropriate for the Northern Gray Squirrel. Dr. Bachman had previously 

 regarded the Northern and Southern Gray Squirrels as distinct species, 

 restricting the name carolinensis to the # southern form. The name fuliginosus 

 of Bachman apparently refers to a dusky phase of the southern form, sup- 

 posed by him to be more or less common along the lower part of the Mis- 

 sissippi, especially in Louisiana, I have met thus far with no melanistic 

 specimens of the Gra}^ Squirrel from any point south of Pennsylvania, nor 

 have I found any other reference to anything that can be considered as a 

 melanistic phase of the southern variety. The specimens from New Leon, 

 Mexico, referred very doubtfully by Professor Baird to Sciurus carolinensis, 

 seem not to be varietally distinguishable from the southern form of this spe- 

 cies, and are hence here identified as referable to var. carolinensis. 



The Sciurus carolinensis of De Saussure from Mexico seems not to 

 differ materially from S. carolinensis of the United States. "Cauda corpore 

 vix brevior. Supra fuscus, flavo dense tessellatus; dorso medio obscuriore, 

 lateribus flavescentibus", etc., applies unequivocally to S. carolinensis, and to 

 no other species thus far known to me. Tomes gives it from Dueilas, Guate- 



* Richardson (Faun.-Bor. Amer. i, 191) cites " Sciurus niger Say, Long's Expedition, vol. i, p. 262", 

 probably from the English edition, which is the one he elsewhere says he usually quotes. In the Amer- 

 ican edition, in the " Catalogue of the Names of Animals " met with at and on the journey to Engiueer 

 Cantonment (vol. i, p. 37G), occurs " Sciurus nigra— Black Squirrel", but with no further remarks, and 

 hence nothing to indicate the locality of its occurrence, or whether the " Black Squirrel" here referred to 

 is S. carolinensis or a melanistic phase of one of the Fox Squirrels. In the same manner are mentioned 

 " Sciurus capislratus " and " Sciurus cinereus ". 



