Tlie Squirrels of Eastern North America. 165 



Type locality. North America (Virginia?).* 



Geographic distribution. Transition and Carolinian zones of the east ; 

 from northern New York and southern New Hampshire south to Georgia ; 

 west to the plains. 



Habitat. Forests and groves ; everywhere abundant, nocturnal, spend 

 ing the day in hollow trees or nests made of bark, leaves, and moss. 



General characters. Size medium, considerably smaller than S. sabrinus ; 

 hind foot smaller; tail narrower and of a rather different shape, tapering 

 off more toward the end ; no decided difference in color between winter 

 and summer pelage ; hairs of under parts white to the base ; soles furred 

 in winter, only the pads naked ; wholly naked in summer ; palms naked 

 throughout the year. 



Color. Winter pelage : upper parts drab, often shaded irregularly with 

 russet, slightly darker on upper surface of tail, the hairs plumbeous below, 

 only the tips being colored ; upper surface of hands grayish white ; upper 

 surface of feet drab, the toes and inner edge grayish white ; cheeks gray 

 ish white; a black orbital ring; ears nearly naked, the skin dusky; 

 under parts pure white, usually washed on lower surface of tail and some 

 times of legs and flying membrane with pinkish buff, the hairs white 

 basally. Summer pelage not differing materially from the winter, the 

 upper parts usually more russet, having the appearance of being due to 

 fading and wearing rather than to a change in color ; the white of under 

 parts often soiled, and the color of under surface of tail more intense. 



Cranial characters. Skull smaller and lighter than that of S. sabrinus, 

 audital bullae larger, not flattened, the bone light and papery ; nasals not 

 so much turned up at ends ; teeth, including penultimate upper premolar, 

 lighter throughout. Size of an average adult skull : basilar length, 28.8 ; 

 occipitonasal length, 34.2; zygomatic breadth, 21 ; greatest height of cra 

 nium above palate, 12.2; greatest length of single half of mandible, 20.6. 



Size. Average measurements of seven adult specimens from Liberty 

 Hill, Conn. : total length, 234.5 ; tail vertebne, 99.6; hind foot, 31.4. 



General remarks. Sciuropterus volans retains its characters, with only a 

 slight range of individual variation, throughout the whole of the Transi 

 tion and Carolinian zones, but in the lower Austral Zone begins to ap 

 proach the slightly different form of peninsular Florida. A series from 

 St. Marys, Ga., is intermediate both in cranial characters and color be 

 tween S. volans typicus and S. volans querceti. In the north S. volans over 

 laps the range of S. sabrinus for a short distance, the two meeting wher 

 ever the Transition and Canadian faunas run into each other. 



Specimens examined. Total number, 28, from the following localities: 

 New Hampshire: Hancock, 3. 

 New York : Peterboro, 1. 



*No definite type locality can be assigned the southern flying squirrel. 

 Linnaeus based his Must volans on Ray, Edwards and Seba, and himself 

 gives Virginia and Mexico as its habitat. 



Ray tells us " In Nova Hispania atque etiam Virginia reperitur. " 



Seba does not specify where his specimen came from, though he calls 

 it Sciurus volans virginianus. 



Edwards says : " They are brought to us from several parts of North 

 America and have been of late discovered in Poland." 



