The Squirrels of Eastern North America. 151 



General characters. — Size somewhat larger than S. hidoricianns ti/])icits. 

 General color usually less ferruginous, often yellowish gray ; belly usually 

 white and only under side of tail ferruginous ; soles of feet naked in sum- 

 mer, partially covered with hair in winter; character of pelage the same 

 as in true ladovicianus. 



Color.— Ears never white ; nose sometimes white ; usual color of upper 

 parts a mixed black and rusty, the hairs banded with black and pale 

 ferruginous ; under parts pale ferruginous to rustj^ white ; under surface 

 of tail ferruginous, the hairs with often a black subajjical band. Ears 

 ferruginous and in winter well tufted. 



Some specimens are much lighter in color, being yellowish gray above, 

 with the black banding of the hairs reduced to a mininmm ; the belly 

 white, and the under surface of the tail pale ferruginous. Some others 

 have a good deal of black on the heatl, belly, and legs, but I have never 

 seen a wholly black individual. 



Cranial cJiaraclers. — Skull rather larger than that of Sciarus ladovicianus ; 

 otherwise similar. Ratio of occipitonasal length to nasal length, 32.3. 

 Size of an average adult skull (the type) : basilar length, 61 ; occipito- 

 nasal length, 68.8; zygomatic breadth, 40; greatest height of cranium 

 above palate, 22.2 ; greatest length of single half of mandible, 42.2. 



Size. — Average measui-ements of three adult specimens from White Sul- 

 phur Springs, \V. Va. : total length, 587.7; tail vertebrte, 271.8; hind 

 foot, 73.3. 



General remarks. — It seems strange that among the multitude of names 

 given our squirrels, and especially the fox squirrels, there should be none 

 to apply to the present subspecies. Linnseus' name Sclurus cinereus has 

 passed current for a long time for this animal, but cannot possibly apply 

 to it. Linn?eus based his name on three authorities, namely : 



Ray's Quadrupeds, p. 215, "Sclurus vlrglnianus cinereus major." 



Catesby's Natural History, II, p. 74, t. 74, " The Gray Fox Squirrel, 

 Sclurus cinereus." 



Kalm, 2, p. 409. 



Ray says of his Sclurus virginianus cinereus major that it is the size of 

 the common rabbit (of Europe) and of the same color, and that it inhabits 

 Virginia. This brief description can appl}^, on account of the very large 

 size claimed for the species, to none other tlian the large southern fox 

 squirrel, Sclurus nlger Linn. 



Catesby's gray fox squirrel has been supposed by subsequent authors^ 

 Baird excepted, to be the northern fox squirrel, but such a view seems to 

 me wholly untenable and in direct contradiction to the evidence. 



bia,' records several specimens from Laurel, Md., in Dr. Merriam's col- 

 lection, and states that many are ship[jed to Center Market from points 

 in Virginia thirty or forty miles west of the city. The subspecies is, 

 however, rare in most parts of northern Virginia. Lieut. Wirt Robinson 

 has told me that in ten years' shooting in Buckingliam County', Va., he 

 got only two fox squirrels out of hundreds of squirrels killed. A few re- 

 main in the AUeghanies of West Virginia, where Mr. Thaddeus Siirber 

 got me three fine specimens in the last two years at White Sulphur Springs. 



