170 CATALOGUE OF THE MAMMALIA OF 
species, but in other places he treats them as undoubtedly dis- 
tinct. We can scarcely imagine a more perplexing study than 
the papers of Mr. Jenyns on this genus; the conclusions of each 
are invariably sapped by those of the next. We have not been 
able to give the attention we should desire to the subject, or to 
examine a sufficient number of specimens; but if opportunity 
offers, we shall probably return to the subject on a future occa- 
sion. In the mean time, the communication of specimens (which 
should be preserved in spirits) presenting any unusual features 
in size, colour, or atherwise, will be esteemed a favour. 
For this species we can at present give only two localities, 
viz., ‘Shotley Bridge,” W. Backhouse; ‘ Castle Eden Dene,” 
Rev. H. B. Tristram. 
Its dentition is the same as that of S. fodiens. 
Orver III. RODENTIA, Cwv. 
TRIBE I. CLAVICULATA, Oven. 
Famity I, SCIURID. 
I, SCIURUS, Linn. 
1. S. vutearis, Linn. SQuirREL. 
Abundant in many parts of our district, especially about 
Riding Mill, Hexham, and Shotley Bridge, and in the woods 
north of Morpeth, but not by any means universally distributed. 
The following notes have been kindly communicated to us by 
the gentlemen whose names are attached to each. 
“The nests are plentiful in Ravensworth woods.”—G. S. 
Brady. 
“ Very common here (St. John’s), feeding on the cones of the fir, 
spruce, and larch, those of the Scotch fir they will eat green. I 
think they do not hybernate here, as they are to be seen about in 
winter, and their tracks on the snow are curious from their claws 
being so widely spread. I think they eat the Boletus bovinus, as 
I have seen them carry them into the trees, and I once found a 
dead frog in a squirrel’s nest.” —W. Backhouse. 
“A squirrel shot near Hexham, in November, 1847, was of 
the usual colour, except that the mystachial bristles, the nose 
