384 MONOGRAPH OF THE GENUS SCIURUS. 



Colour. — This species varies a little in colour, but in gene- 

 ral it will not be found to differ widely from the following de- 

 scription. The ears, upper surface of the fore and hind feet, 

 and along the foreshoulders and hips, a faint stripe on the 

 back, and the upper surface of the tail, bright chesnut ; body 

 above greyish brown, the hairs minutely speckled with red- 

 dish brown and black. The whole under surface white, with 

 a narrow black line separating the colours of the upper surface 

 from those beneath. The under surface of the tail is first ru- 

 fous, then black, tipped with light brown. 



DIMENSIONS. 



IN. L. 



Length of head and body 8 



Ditto of tail, (vertebra) 5 



Ditto including fur 6 6 



Palm and middle fore claw 1 2 



From heel to point of hind claw 1 10 



Geographical Distribution. — The limits of its northern 

 range are not precisely determined, but all our travellers who 

 have braved the snows of our polar regions, speak of its ex- 

 istence as far north as their travels extended. It has been 

 observed in the 68th or 69th parallel of latitude ; it also ex- 

 ists in Labrador, Newfoundland, and the Canadas. It is the 

 most common species in New England and New York, and 

 is not rare in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. It is still seen 

 in diminished numbers in the mountains of Virginia, although 

 in the low country of that state it is scarcely known. It is 

 occasionally met with along the summits of the Alleghanies, 

 in North Carolina and Tenessee, but is not, that I am aware 

 of, found farther south. 



Habits. — The habits of this little squirrel are, in several 

 particulars, peculiar. Whilst the larger grey squirrels derive 

 their sustenance from the buds and nuts of trees, growing in 

 warm or temperate climates, and are constitutionally fitted, 

 during winter, to subsist on a small quantity of food, — the 

 chickaree, on the other hand, has the free circulation of its 

 blood unimpeded, and exhibits the greatest sprightliness and 

 activity amidst the snows and frosts of the polar regions. It 

 consequently is obliged, during this inclement season, to con- 

 sume as great a quantity of food as at any other. Nature has 

 therefore instructed it to make provision in the season of abun- 

 dance, for the long winter that is approaching ; and the quan- 

 tity of nuts and seeds sometimes laid up in store by this 

 species is almost incredible. On one occasion I was present 

 when a bushel and a half of shell-barks (Carya alba) and 



