SCIDKID^— CYNOMYS. 889 



Museum from an unknown locality, to which species it is finally doubtfully 

 referred in volume V (p. 257). The latter, however, has since been identi- 

 fied by Temminck and others as one of the West African annulated-tailed 

 species of Sciurus. It is possible that the specimen described by Hamilton 

 Smith had also an African origin, though it seems to much better agree with 

 S. annulatus than with any of the African annulated-tailed Squirrels. 



Note. — In 1853, Audubon and Bachman, in the third volume of their 

 Quadrupeds of North America (p. 65), described a Sper?nophilus pealei, intro- 

 ducing the species into their work with the remark that they could not with cer- 

 tainty " add it to the list of our North American mammals", the locality of the 

 specimen being unknown to them. They add, however, that they could not 

 identify the specimen with any Old World species known to them, "whilst, 

 on the other hand, it bears in form, size, and markings, a strong connection 

 with the American Spermophiles, and will, we are inclined to think, yet be 

 found in some part of the western sea-coast regions of America 1 '. Later, on 

 the last page of the same volume (last line), they say " Spermophilus pealei.— 

 Not American." In the introduction to their description of the species (I. c. 

 p. 64), they state that they received the specimen from one of the naturalists 

 of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition shortly after the return of the expedition 

 to the United States. As clearly shown by their description, their Sper- 

 mophilus pealei was based on a specimen of Sciurus palmarum (auct.) of In- 

 dia, an animal having many affinities with the genus Tamias. 



Gextjs CYNOMYS Raf. 



Arctomys (iu part) of various authors. 



Spermophilus (in part) of various authors. 



Cynumys Raeinesque, Ainer. Monthly Mag. ii, 1817, 45. Based on the "Barking Squirrel" of Lewis and 



Clarke, = Arciomys ludoviciaiius Ord. 

 Anisonyx Rakinesque, Anier. Monthly Mag. ii, 1817, 45. Based on the "Burrowing Squirrel" of Lewis 



and Clarke, = Arctomys columbianus Ord (aleo included a species of a different family, 



" Aplodontia leporina" auct.). 



Generic chars. — Skull rather short, very broad, highly arched, and 

 massive; zygomatic arches greatly expanded and strongly divergent posteriorly ; 

 malar bone nearly straight, rather broad and thin, its plane of expansion 

 nearly horizontal, dipping slightly inward ; postorbital processes long, strong, 

 decurved; muzzle rather long, abruptly contracted at the front border of the 

 maxillaries, its sides parallel ; anteorbital foramina rather large, subtriangular, 



