NESTS AND EGGS OF SOME CALIFORNIAN BIRDS. 25 



PROVISIONAL DESCRIPTIONS OF SUPPOSED NEW MAMMALS 

 FROM CALIFORNIA AND LOWER CALIFORNIA. 



BY WALTER E. BRYANT. 



Sciurus fossor nigripes Sub-p. nov. 

 Black-footed Gray Squirrel. 



For the past five years I liave known of the exist- 

 ence of two different gray squirrels inhabiting this State, 

 but have not, until a 3'ear ago, been able to ascertain 

 from taxidermists and market men tlie locality where 

 the rarer of the two forms (^nigripes) had been taken. 

 During the fall of 1888 I examined about twenty specimens 

 of this new variety in the flesh from San Mateo County, and 

 about the same number of S. fossor from the foot-hills of 

 the Sierra Nevada, as they were offered on sale in the mar- 

 kets. There is no trouble to recognize at a glance the 

 differences which are so strongly marked in the gray squir- 

 rels of the Sierra region and those of the redwood, coast 

 region south of San Francisco. The intergradation I sur- 

 mise occurs northward, judging from four specimens just 

 collected b}' Mr. R. C. McGregor ijj Mendocino County, but 

 these are in poor condition, and not all of them adults. 



I regret that it is not possible to give measurements of 

 the two forms (taken from fresh specimens) as well as cra- 

 nial character, at present, but the following will serve to 

 distinguish the black-footed variety. 



Subsp. char. — General color of upper parts much darker 

 than S. fossor, particularly upper surface of tail. Upper 

 surface of manus, dark gray or black Upper surface of pes, 

 black, sometimes with a sprinkling of gray on toes. Entire 

 absence (in majority of specimens) of light tawny ochraceous 

 at base and posterior surface of ears. Dorsal region and 



2d Ser., Vol. II. Issued June 2L, 1889. 



