SOIURIDiE— SCIURUS FOSSOE. 



731 



Table XXXIV. — List of specimens examined of Sciurtus niger vizr. ludovicianus — Continued. 



SCIURUS FOSSOR Peale. 

 California Gray Squirrel. 



Sciurus fossor Peale, Mam. and Birds, U. S. Ex. Exp. 1848, 55. — Audubon & Bachman, Quad. N. Aru. iii, 

 1854, 264, pi. cliii, fig. 2.— Baird, Mam. N. Am. 1857, 264.— Cooper, Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci. iii.— 

 Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 3d ser. xx, 1867, 426.— Allen, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, 

 xvi, 1874, 287. 



Sciurus heermanni Le Conte, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pbila. vi, 1852, 149. 



Sciurus leporinns Henshaw, Ann. Rep. Ch. Engineers for 1876, App. JJ, 310 (probably not S. leporinus 

 Bachman). 



Specific chars. — Length of body 11 to 12 inches. Tail-vertebrpe about 

 11, ranging from 10.50 to 12.50; tail to end of hairs 14 50, ranging from 14 

 to 15.50, hence much longer than the body. Above, clear plumbeous-gray; 

 beneath, pure white; no lateral line; hairs of the tail gray at base, with a 

 broad subterminalband of black, and broadly tipped with white; posterior 

 surface of ears brownish, particularly toward the base. 



This species is remarkable for the constancy of its coloration. Among 

 some thirty specimens before me, only two depart much from the normal 

 phase, as above described. One is No. 2463, from near San Francisco, which 

 is faintly washed above with pale reddish-brown. The other is No. 3633, 

 from Fort Tejon, which is evidently in an abnormal condition of pelage. 

 This has the back brownish, and an unsymmetrical, irregularly-shaped spot 

 of brownish-yellow on the top of the head. Professor Baird also refers to a 

 specimen from San Francisco with a brownish back. There is a slight varia- 

 tion in color with locality, specimens from northern localities being of a 



