148 Bangs — The Squirrels of Eastern North America. 



mingled with black above (the hairs having either black tips or a black 

 subapical band and clay-colored tips) and uniform clay color below. Tail 

 usually mixed clay color and black (the hairs being clay color at base and 

 tips and black in the middle) above and below. A few specimens have 

 the under side of tail clear clay color. Top of ^lead from white nose patch 

 to ears usually black, even in the lightest examples. Occasional exam- 

 ples of a general ferruginous tone with the under side of tail rusty can 

 be found in any lai'ge series. 



Cranial characters. — Skull large and massive, developing with age con- 

 spicuous lateral ridges ; rostrum long and well arched ; ascending branches 

 of preraaxilla broad posteriorly, giving great breadth at the root of the 

 zygomata; nasals broad and long, extending back of ascending branches 

 of premaxilla ; postorbital ]irocess of frontal heavy ; ratio of occii)itonasal 

 length to nasal length, 30.78 ; penultimate upper premolar always absent 

 in the adult. Size of an average adult skull: basilar length (basion to 

 front of premaxilla), 64; occipitonasal length, 74.6; zygomatic breadth, 

 41; greatest height of cranium above palate, 22.6; greatest length of 

 single half of mandible, 44.2. 



Size. — Average measurements of fifteen adult specimens from Citro- 

 nelle, Citrus Co., Fla. : total length, 638.46 ; tail, 304.13 ; hind foot, 87.81. 



General remarks. — It does not seem probable that the black individuals 

 of Sciurus niger are melanistic. They invariably retain the white ears 

 and nose, and the commonest form has the back about half black, but 

 the amount of black, as in the skunk, is very variable. 



Sciurus niger retains its characters so constantly over the whole of its 

 range and differs so markedly from the two smaller fox squirrels, Sciurus 

 ludovicianus and Sciurus ludovicianus vicinus, that I treat it as a distinct 

 species. Dr. Allen speaks of intermediate individuals from Virginia and 

 Maryland, but I have never seen any such. The material at the time 

 Dr. Allen's Monograph was written was of course very much inferior to 

 that of today ; consequently the differences between the species were not 

 wholly apparent. Dr. Allen was, moreover, very badly off for skulls of 

 any of the fox squirrels. I have but few specimens from localities where 

 S. niger might be expected to actually interblend with either S. ludovi- 

 cianus or S. ludovicianus vicinus, but such regions are small in extent, and 

 it does not seem possible for animals as distinct as these to pass into each 

 other suddenl3^ 



Linnjeus' Sciurus niger, as is well known, was based on the black fox 

 squirrel of Catesby. Bachman applied this name to the melanistic va- 

 riety of the northern gray squirrel, taking Sciurus capistratus Bosc for 

 the fox squiri'el. Professor Baird used the name Sciurus vulpinus Gmelin 

 because Linnteus' name was given to the black variety only of the fox 

 squirrel. Dr. Allen in 1877 restored Sciurus niger to its proper place, and 

 the name has since then been generally used. 



Specimens examined. — Total number, 44, from the following localities : 

 Florida: Hibernia, 1; Havvkinsville, 1; Citronelle, 37. 

 Georgia : St. Marys, 2 ; Columbus, 1. 

 North Carolina : Tarboro, 2. 



