1()2 Bangs The Squirrels of Eastern North Americo. 



Specimens examined. Total number, 56, from the following localities : 

 Connecticut: Liberty Hill, 11. 



Massachusetts: Wareham, 24; Way land, 1; Brookline, 1. 

 Indiana: Denver, 14. 

 Minnesota: Steel Co., 1. 

 Wisconsin : Waupaca, 2. 



North Carolina : Magnetic City, foot of Roan Mountain, 2 (not quite 

 typical). 



Genus SCIUROPTERUS F. Cuvier. 



Tail flat, laterally expanded, densely haired with fine hairs; an expan. 

 sion of the skin of the sides extends from wrist to ankle, and when spread 

 acts, with the flat tail, like a parachute, enabling the animal to make 

 long, slanting descents through the air ; pelage very fine and dense ; skull 

 light ; audital bullte large ; end of the pterygoid process resting against 

 audital bulla ; rostrum short; occipital region slightly drooping and 

 turned under; interorbital constriction deep and zygoma drooping to 

 make room for the large eye ; penultimate upper premolar always present ; 

 nocturnal animals. 



Sciuropterus sabrinus (Shaw). Severn River Flying Squirrel. 



1801. Sciums sabrinus Shaw, Gen. Zool., I, 1801, p. 157. 



1778. " Sciuro volante majore" Pallas, Nova Spec. Glires, 1778, p. 354 (not 



a scientific name). 



1788. Sciurus hudsonius Gmelin, Syst. Nat., I, 1788, p. 153 (preoccupied). 

 1815. Sciurus labradorius Ord, Guthrie's Geog. , 2d Am. ed., 1815, p. 292 



(nomen nudum). 



1828. Pteromifs sabrinus Richardson, Zool. Journ., Ill, 1828, p. 510; And. 



and Bach., Quad. North Am., Ill, 1853, p. 202. 



1829. Pteromys hudsonius Fischer, Syn. Mamm., 1829, p. 365 ; Baird, 



Mamm. North Am., 1857, p. 288. 



1874. Sciuropterus volucella var. hudsonius Allen, Proc. Boston Soc.. Nat. 

 Hist., XVI, 1874, p. 289 ; Monog. N. Am. Sciuridse, 1877, p. 655. 



Ti/pe locality. Severn River, James Bay, Canada. 



Geographic distribution. Boreal North America, south in the east to 

 northern New York and southern New Hampshire. 



Habitat. Mixed woods and forest; nocturnal, spending the day in 

 hollows and nests in the trees. 



General characters. Size, largest of the eastern flying squirrels; tail 

 broad, the hairs long ; hind foot large ; a decided difference in color be 

 tween winter and summer pelage; under side of tail washed with sooty ; 

 hairs of under parts, plumbeous at base, showing through, and giving a 

 decidedly gray appearance to under parts; soles furred both in winter 

 and summer, only the pads naked. 



Color. Winter pelage: upper parts very glossy, wood brown to cinna 

 mon, often somewhat shaded with yellow, darkening on tail towards tip 

 to sooty; hairs of back and sides dark plumbeous below r , the merest tip 

 being colored, the plumbeous color therefore showing through whenever 

 the fur is the least disturbed ; upper surface of feet and hands sooty gray ; 



