The Squlrreh of Eastern Korth America. 165 



Type localitij. — North America (Virginia?).* 



Geographic dUtribution. — Transition and Carolinian zones of the east; 

 from northern New Yorlv and southern New Hampshire south to Georgia ; 

 west to the jilains. 



Habitat. — Forests and groves ; everywhere abundant, nocturnal, spend- 

 ing the day in hollow trees or nests made of bark, leaves, and moss. 



General characters. — Size medium, considei'ably smaller than IS. sabrinus ; 

 hind foot smaller ; tail narrower and of a rather different shape, tapering 

 off more toward the end; no decided difference in color between winter 

 and summer pelage ; hairs of under parts white to the base ; soles furred 

 in winter, only the pads naked ; wholly naked in summer ; palms naked 

 throughout the j^ear. 



Color. — Winter pelage : upper parts drab, often shaded irregularly with 

 russet, slightly darker on upper surface of tail, the hairs plumbeous below, 

 only the tips being colored ; upper surfoce of hands grayish white ; upper 

 surface of feet drab, the toes and inner edge grayish white ; cheeks gray- 

 ish white; a black orbital ring; ears nearly naked, the skin dusky; 

 under i)arts pure white, usually washed on lower sui-face of tail and some- 

 times of legs and flying membrane with pinkish buff, the hairs white 

 basally. Summer pelage not differing materially from the winter, the 

 upper jnirts usually more russet, having the api)earance of being due to 

 fading and wearing rather than to a change in color ; the white of under 

 parts o^ten soiled, and the color of under surface of tail more intense. 



Cranial characters. — Skull smaller and lighter than that of S. sabri)ius,. 

 audital bullpe larger, not flattened, the bone light and papery ; nasals not 

 so much turned up at ends ; teeth, including penultimate upper premolar, 

 lighter throughout. Size of an average adult skull : basilar length, 28.8 ; 

 occipitonasal length, 34.2; zygomatic breadth, 21 ; greatest height of cra- 

 nium above palate, 12.2; greatest length of single half of mandible, 20. G. 



Size. — Average measurements of seven adult specimens from Liberty 

 Hill, Conn. : total length, 234.5 ; tail vertebrte, 99.6; hind foot, 31.4. 



General remarks. — Scinropterns volans retains its characters, with only a 

 slight range of individual variation, throughout the whole of the Transi- 

 tion and Carolinian zones, but in the lower Austral Zone begins to ap- 

 proach the slightlj' difterent form of peninsular Florida. A series from 

 St. Marys, Ga. , is intermediate both in cranial characters and color be- 

 tween S. volans typicus and *S'. volans qnerceli. In the north *S'. volans over- 

 laps the range of S. sabrinus for a short distance, the two meeting wher- 

 ever the Transition and Canadian faunas run into each other. 



Specimens e.vamined. — Total number, 28, from the following localities: 

 New Hampshire : Hancock, 3. 

 New York: Peterboro, 1. 



*No definite type locality can be assigned the southern flying squirrel. 

 Linnaeus based his Mus volans on Ray, Edwards and Seba, and himself 

 gives Virginia and INIexico as its habitat. 



Ray tells us " In Nova Hispania atque etiam Virginia reperitur. " 



Seba does not specify where his specimen came from, tliough he calls 

 it Sciurns volans virginiamis. 



Edwards says : " They are brought to us from several parts of North 

 America and have been of late discovered in Poland." 



