SQUIRRELS OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 9I 



SCIURUS ALLENI Nelson. Allen's Squirrel. 



'Sciurus carolinensislV Baird, Mamm. N. Am., pp. 263-264, 1857 (Santa 



Catarina, Nuevo Leon, Mexico). 

 Sciurus carol inensis var. carolinensis Allen, Mon. N. Am. Rodentia, pp. 



706-709, 716, 1877 (part: from^ Nuevo Leon, Mexico). 

 Sciurus carolinensis Alston, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, pp. 658-659, 1878; 



Biol. Cent.-Am., Mamm., pp. 124-125, June, 1880 (part: from Nuevo 



Leon, Mexico). 

 Sciurus arisoncnsis Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., N. Y., iii, p. 222, 



May, 1 89 1 (part : from San Pedro Mines, Nuevo Leon, Mexico). 

 Sciurus alletii Nelson, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, xii, pp. 147-148, June 



3, 1898. 



Type locality. — Monterey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. Type no. |^^|} 

 U. S. National Museum, Biological Survey Collection. 



Distribution. — Open pecan and other forests of Low^er Sonoran 

 zone near Monterey, Nuevo Leon, extending up to oak and pine forests 

 of Transition zone near Victoria and Miquihuana, Tamaulipas, 

 Mexico (alt. 2000-8500 ft.). 



Characters. — Upperparts nearly uniform grayish brown or yellowish 

 brown, much as in Sciurus carolinensis; feet gray ; underparts white. 

 Pelage on back soft and rather dense ; tail rather full. Teats : p. \ 

 n 2 ; 1 



Color. — Winter pelage : Entire upperparts yellowish brown, finely 

 grizzled with gray and black, usually darker along back and grayer 

 along sides; top of head similar, but usually a iittle darker; eye with 

 distinct ring of dingy whitish shaded with buff on outer border ; sides 

 of head grizzled dusky gray, often suffused with yellowish brown ; 

 ears and basal patch brownish gray ; fore feet and outside of fore legs 

 whitish gray, frequently more or less washed with buffy ; hind feet 

 whitish gray, usually with a spot of dark buffy on middle of upper 

 surface ; outside of thighs like flanks but often with a browner shade 

 near feet; underparts white; color of upper- and lowerparts 

 usually separated by a narrow line of pale grayish ; base of tail all 

 around like back ; tail above black, heavily washed with white, the 

 yellowish brown or yellowish gray undercolor often showing through; 

 below with broad median area of grizzled yellowish brown or yellow- 

 ish gray, narrowly bordered with black and edged with white. Hairs 

 of back black, with one and often two rings of gray, buffy, or buffy 

 brown, the two colors sometimes on same hair and sometimes on 

 distinct hairs. The pelage in summer is darker and more yellowish 

 brown than in winter — due to absence of most of tlie gray or white 

 tips to hairs. 



