SCIURlDiE— CYNOMYS GOLUMBIANUS. 905 



gray ; tlie upper is of a reddish brown : the lower part of the jaws, the under 

 part of ihe neck, legs and feet, from the body and belly downwards, are of a 

 light brick-red : Ihe nose and eyes-are of a darker shade, of the same colour: 

 the upper part of Ihe head, neck, and body arc of a curious brown gray, with 

 a slight tinge of brick red: the longer hairs of Ihese parts are of a-reddish 

 white color at their extremities, and falling together give this animal a speckled 

 appearance. These animals form in large companies, like those on the Mis- 

 souri, occupying with their burrows sometimes two hundred acres of land : 

 the burrows are separate, and each possesses, perhaps, ten or twelve of these 

 inhabitants. There is a little mound in front of the hole, formed of the earth 

 thrown out of the burrow, and frequently there are three or four distinct holes, 

 forming one burrow, with these entrances around the base of these little 

 mounds. These mounds, sometimes about two feet in height and four in 

 diameter, are occupied as watch-towers by the inhabitants of these little com- 

 munities. The squirrels, one or more, are irregularly distributed on the tract 

 they thus ocupy, at the distance of ten, twenty, or sometimes from thirty to 

 forty yards. When any one approaches, they make a shrill whistling sound, 

 somewhat resembling tweet, tweet, tweet, the signal for their party to take the 

 alarm, and to retire into their intrenchments. They feed on the roots of 

 grass, &c."* 



In this account, there is nothing respecting the external features of the 

 animal that is not strictly applicable to the present species, as illustrated by 

 the large suite of specimens before me, though the color of neither the dorsal 

 or ventral surface is quite so red as one would naturally infer from their 

 description of it.f Many specimens are, however, decidedly reddish above 

 and rusty-yellow below, which is the "light brick red" of the above account. 

 There is certainly a "slight tinge of brick red" in the coloration of the upper 

 surface. The description of the feet, so far as it goes, is strictly correct, the 

 inner toe of the fore feet being "remarkably short" as compared with the 

 other toes, and equipped with a "blunt nail", not a "long nail, nearly the 

 length of those of the other toes", as stated by Audubon and Bachman, but 

 still much longer than in the true Spermophiles and Squirrels, as is also the 



"Lewis and Clarke's Travels, 1st Amer. ed. vol. ii, pp. 173. 174. 



t In respect to their account of the color of this animal, it may be noted that they describe their 

 "Barking Squirrel " of the plains of the Upper Missouri as being of "a uniform bright brick-red and 

 gray", the former predominating, with the lower parts lighter, indicating that the redness is much 

 stronger in the Missouri animal, as it really is. 



