272 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 8» 



Carter County: Roan Mountain, altitudes 5,000 to 6,100 feet, 4. 

 Cocke County: Inadu Knob, altitudes 4,500 to 5,900 feet, 7; Mount Guyot, alti- 

 tude 6,500 feet, 2 ; Snake Den Mountain, altitude 4,500 feet, 1. 

 Sevier County: Indian Gap, altitude 5,200 feet, 2. 



SCIURUS CAROLINENSIS CAROLINENSIS Gmelin: Gray, or Cat, Squirrel 



The gray squirrel was formerly one of the commonest and most 

 widely distributed mammals in Tennessee. It frequents not only the 

 moist bottomlands and swamps, where there is an abundance of nut- 

 bearing deciduous trees, but is also found on wooded hills and the 

 lower mountain slopes. Four gray squirrels were seen and two col- 

 lected in deciduous woods on Poor Valley Kidge, Clinch ;Mountains, 

 Grainger County. Although both of these are young individuals, 

 they appear to resemble carolinensis more closely than leucotis. 



The gray squirrel is no longer abundant in the more settled parts 

 of middle Tennessee. Andre Michaux (Williams, 1928, p. 335) refers 

 to the presence in 1795 of small gray squirrels in the vicinity of 

 Nashville. Four years later, Abraham Steiner and Christian Fred- 

 eric de Schweinitz (Williams, 1928, p. 516) comment on the "tre- 

 mendous number of squirrels" in the Cumberland settlements in 

 the vicinity of Nashville. The Museum party did not collect or see 

 any gray squirrels in middle Tennessee, except in the vicinity of 

 Fayetteville, Lincoln County, where six were seen and two collected, 

 and in the deciduous woods 8 miles north of Indian Mound, Stewart 

 County, where two were seen. 



Gray squirrels were fairly common in some parts of southwestern 

 Tennessee. Only a few were actually seen, however, near Hickory 

 Withe, Fayette County, during April 1937. Benjamin C. Miles 

 (Ehoads, 1896, p. 196) in describing the migrations of gray squirrels 

 from Arkansas to Tennessee states that he has "seen them exhausted 

 and wet on the east bank of the Mississippi River." This would 

 indicate that gray squirrels can swim considerable distances when 

 necessary. 



The hind feet of the specimens from Big Sandy average larger than 

 those taken in the southern part of the State. The average measure- 

 ments of 10 males from this locality are as follows: Total length, 

 453.5 (428^80) ; tail, 215.9 (207-230) ; hind foot, 66.2 (63-68). For 

 six females from the same locality the average measurements are: 

 Total length, 475.5 (460-485) ; taif, 225.3 (220-230) ; hind foot, 66.3 

 (63-68). 



Benton County: Big Sandy, 18. 

 Campbell County: Highcliff, 4. 

 Fayette County: Hickory Withe, 1. 



