50 NELSON 



SCIURUS POLIOPUS NEMORALIS Nelson. 



Michoacan Squirrel. 



Sciurus alblpcs ne)noralls Nelson, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, xii, p. 151, 



June 3, 1898. 

 Sciurus ivagneri neino7'alis Xix,^'^, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., N. Y., x, p. 



454, Nov., 1898. 



Type locality. — Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico. Type no. f ffff? 

 U. S. National Museum, Biological Survey Collection. 



Dlstributio7i. — Pine and oak forests of Transition and Boreal 

 zones, from the Volcano of Toluca, State of Mexico, to Nahuatzin, 

 Michoacan, Mexico (alt. 7000-12,000 feet). 



Characters. — Similar to S. hernandezi in having feet and under- 

 parts white, but back, including nape and rump patches, decidedly 

 darker. Pelage full and soft; tail large and bushy. Teats: p- x ^* f 



Color. — Top of nose and fore crown dark iron gray washed with 

 shining black ; nape patch usually varying from dingy yellowish brown 

 to dark rusty, almost chestnut brown, washed and grizzled with black \ 

 rump patch usually paler; rest of upperparts, including outside of 

 legs, iron gray with slight intermixture of rusty ; feet usually white ; 

 ears dark gray or grizzled gray and yellowish brown, with distinct white 

 basal patches; sides of head whitish gray; ring around eye whitish; 

 sides of head from nape patch to eyes sometimes yellowish brown ; 

 underparts usually white, rarely buffy yellow; tail above black, with 

 heavy wash of white ; below, with broad median area grizzled gray, 

 yellowish gray or yellowish brown, with poorly defined black border 

 and white edge, the white sometimes extending as a wash over entire 

 lower surface. Hairs of back black, with subterminal and sub-basal 

 rings of dark buffy or yellowish, or with white tips and basal, or sub- 

 terminal, buffy rings. 



Variation. — The nape and rump patches vary from dingy yellowish 

 to dark buffy or dingy chestnut, washed more or less heavily with 

 black ; nape usually darker than rump. A melanistic phase occurs at 

 Patzcuaro and becomes more common to the southeast until on the 

 Volcano of Toluca it entirely replaces the gray phase. Only two out 

 of nine melanistic specimens from Toluca are grizzled with dingy 

 yellowish gray, the others being uniformly black. Some of the six 

 melanistic specimens from Patzcuaro are sparsely and others abun- 

 dantly grizzled with gray or dingy fulvous, and the tail is strongly 

 edged with white. In the latter specimens the under surface is usually 

 smoky black, and one has albinistic patches in the axillae and on the 



