The Squirrels of Eastern North America. 153 



liiit'iisis, tha8 restricting Sciuruf^ ciiicnnif! Liiiii. to the light color phase of 

 the southern fox squirrel, and it becomes a direct synonym of Sciarusniger 

 Linn., based on the black phase of the same animal from the same locality. 

 The only other name that need be considered at all is Sciurus virginianus 

 of Kerr's Linnteus, 1792. This name was based on the ' Cat Squirrel ' 

 of Pennant's Arctic Zoology, which is an indeterminable animal, said to 

 have a very short tail and to inhabit Virginia, where the i)lanters call it 

 'Cat Squirrel.' As the vernacular name 'Cat Squirrel' is invariably 

 employed in the South for the gray squirrel, it seems likely that the 

 animal in question was nothing more than that species. It may be well 

 to add that Pennant's gray squirrel was a compound animal, including 

 the gray, the southern fox, and perhaps the northern fox squirrels, but 

 referring best to tlie gray squirrel, as pointed out by Professor Baird in 

 his Mammals of North America in 1857. Professor Baird is the only 

 author to question the standing of Linnjeus' Sciurus cinereus. With his 

 usual acuteness he saw that the name could not apply to the northern fox 

 squirrel, but for some reason he retained it, probably because Le Conte, 

 Bachman, and others had done so. 

 Specimens examined. — Total number, 10, from the following localities: 



Pennsylvania: Carlisle,!; Rothruck, 2; — 2. 



Maryland : Prince George Count}', 1 ; — 1. 



West Virginia : White Sulphur Springs, o. 



Sciurus carolinensis carolinensis Gmelin. Southern Gray Squirrel ; 



Cat Squirrel. 



1788. Sciunis caroUnemis Gmelin, Syst. Nat., I, 1788, p. 148 (based on 

 Pennant's Lesser Gray Squirrel from Cai-olina). 



1877. Sciurus caroliaensis var. carolinensis Allen, Monog. N. Am. Sciuridfe, 

 1877, p. 704. 



Tyije locality. — Carolina. 



Geographic distrihation.—XwaiYiA Zone, fnjm northern Florida north to 

 about the lower Hudson Valley, west through the AUeghanies south of 

 Pennsylvania to Indiana, Missouri, Indian Territory, and the edge of the 

 plains. 



Habitat.— In the South, where Sciurus carolinensis occurs in the same 

 region with the southern fox squirrel, the two live in woods of very dif- 

 ferent character. The fox squirrel is exclusively an inhabitant of the 

 flat, open ' piney woods.' The gray squirrel lives in the dense hammocks 

 of live oak and water oak, and in the dee]> swamps of cypress, black 

 gum, and great magnolia that border the streams. Farther north it is 

 found in the forests and groves of oak, chestnut, and hickory. 



Though they feed much on the ground, all the gray squirrels are highly 

 arboreal and very active tree-climbers, springing, when occasion requires 

 it, long distances from branch to branch. 



The southern gray squirrel is in many places exceedingly abundant, 

 but is much shot by the negroes for food, and where persecuted is very 

 shy and seldom seen, passing the greater part of the day in hollows or 

 28— Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. X, 1896 



