SCIURID^E— SCIUKUS ABERTI. 735 



SCIURUS ABERTI Woodh. 



Abcrt's Squirrel. 



Sciurus dorsalis Woodhouse, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. vi, 1852, 110 (Dot S. dorsalis of Gray). 



Sciurus abcrti Woodhouse, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. vi, 1852,220; Sitgreaves's Expl. Colorado and 



Zuui Rivers, 1853, 53, Mam. pi. vi. — Audubon & Bachman, Quad. N. Am. iii, 1854, 262, pi. 



cliii, fig. 1.— Baird, Mam. N. Am. 1857, 2G7. — Allen, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, xvi, 1864, 



287.— Coues, Am. Nat. i, 1867, 355. — Coues & Yarrow, Wheeler's Survs. and Expl. West of 



100th Merid. v, Zool. 1876, 115. 

 Sciurus alberti Gray, Ann. abd Mag. Nat. Hist. 3d. ser. xx, 1867, 417 (lege aberti). 

 Sciurus castanolus Baird, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. vii, 1855, 332 (typ. error for castanonotus). 

 Sciurus castanonotus Baird, Mam. N. Am. 1857, 266; U. S. aud Mex. Bound. Surv. ii, pt. ii, 1859, 35, pi. v. 



Specific chars. — Length of body 11 inches; of tail-vertebrae 8; of tail 

 to end of hairs 12. Above, plumbeous-gray, with generally a more or less broad 

 dorsal area of reddish-brown ; beneath, pure white ; sides of the body with a 

 distinct, generally conspicuous, black line, separating the white of the under 

 parts from the gray of the upper parts. Runs into melanistic phases, in which 

 the color varies from brownish-fuscous to uniform black throughout. Tail 

 centrally black above, broadly edged with white, wholly white below. Ears 

 very large ; in winter, with long pointed ear-tufts, an inch to an inch and a 

 half in length. The ears are larger in this species than in any other Ameri- 

 can species of the genus. 



The brownish area on the back varies in color from yellowish-brown to 

 strong reddish-brown or bright chestnut, and in extent from a short narrow 

 stripe along the middle of the back, one to three inches in length, to a broad 

 band extending the whole length of the body, which sometimes widens so as 

 to cover the whole back from the nape to the tail. It is occasionally almost 

 wholly obsolete, and, when confined to a narrow stripe, is much paler than 

 when of larger extent. Some specimens have a chestnut spot at the posterior 

 base of the ear, which sometimes involves the basal half of the ear-tuft; 

 most of the specimens are without the chestnut ear-patch. Nearly half of 

 the specimens are also wholly without ear-tu(ts. This is apparently a sea- 

 sonal feature, but may be to some extent individual. Of specimens obtained 

 the same day at the same locality, some have well-developed ear-tufts, while 

 others are wholly without them. The majority of the specimens taken in 

 summer show no trace of ear-tufts. 



There are four specimens from Colorado City, Colo., which present a 

 melanistic phase of coloration,* varying 'from pale yellowish-brown to black. 



* Dr. Coues informs me that the black Abort's Squirrels are the prevailing style in portions of 

 Colorado. The collection made by Mrs. M. A. Maxwell in the vicinity of Boulder contains several 

 examples of this phase, which, Dr. Coues was assured by this lady, is much more commonly found there 

 than the normal one. 



