The Squirrels of Eastern North America. 157 



Crardal characters. — Skull about the size of that of leucotis, showing no 

 characters by which it can be separated from any of the carollnensis series. 

 Size of an average adult skull: basilar length, 54.6; occipitonasal length, 

 63.2; zygomatic breadth, 34.6; greatest height of cranium above palate, 

 19; gi'eatest length of single half of mandible, 35.4. 



Size. — Average measurements of nine adult specimens from Elk River, 

 Minn. : total length, 496.3; tail vertebrae, 220.4; hind foot, 67.2. 



General remarks. — Little is known of this fine squirrel. IM3' knowledge 

 of it comes wholly from Dr. Merriam's description and from four speci- 

 mens from the type locality, Elk River, Minn., kindly lent me by him, 

 and ten topotypes in the Bangs collection. 



One point of some interest is that the northern gray squirrel (Sclurus 

 caroUnensis leucotis) occasionally occurs at Elk River in considerable num- 

 bers with hypophicas, but has not been known to breed there, appearing 

 only in migrations. This fact suggests the possibility of hypoplueiis prov- 

 ing to be a distinct species when more is known of it. 



Specimens examined. — Total number, 14, from Elk River, Minn. 



Sciurus carollnensis faliginosus (Bachman). Bayou Gray Squirrel. 



1838. Sclurus fuUglnosus Bach., Proc. ZoiJl. Soc. London, 1838, p. 96 ; Aud. 



and Bach., Quad. N. Am., Ill, 1853, p. 240, pi. CXLIX. 

 1895. Sclurus carollnensis fuUglnosus Bangs, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 



XXVI, p. .543, 1895 ; Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sciences, Phila., 



1896, p. 196. 



Type locality. — Near New Orleans, La. 



Geographic distribution. — The bayou region of the coast of Louisiana. 



General characters. — Size larger than true carollnensis; colors rich and 

 dark ; under parts never pure white and often clear ferruginous ; tail long 

 and bushy, the hairs but slightly tipped with white ; feet large, soles 

 naked ; ears with often a woolly tuft at base in winter. 



Color. — Upper parts deep yellowish ferruginous, varied with black ; the 

 hairs banded, many of them having the black band extending to the tip ; 

 tail dark, the hairs yellowish ferruginous at base, then black and tipped 

 with white, the black subapical band very broad and the white tips short ; 

 under parts varying from clear buffy ferruginous, the cliin only gray, to 

 smoky gray ; line of demarkation between colors of uj^per and under parts 

 always low down and irregular; ear tufts well developed, ferruginous in 

 the examples with ferruginous under parts, grayish white in the exam- 

 ples with gray under parts. 



Cranial characters. — Skull a little larger than that of true carollnensis, 

 otherwise similar. Size of an average adult skull: basilar length, 50.6; 

 occipitonasal length, 60; zygomatic breadth, 33.4; greatest height of cra- 

 nium above palate, 19.8 ; greatest length of single half of mandible, 36. 



Size. — Average measurements of ten adult specimens from Gibson, La. : 

 total length, 467; tail vertebrte, 219.5; hind foot, 67. 



General remarks. — Sclurus carollnensis faliginosus is confined in its ex- 

 treme form to the heavy swamps of the bayou region of the coast of 

 Louisiana. Farther north in the ' prairie ' regions of the same State it 



