93 



Dimensions of the Northern Gray Sąuirrel. 



iu. liii. 



Length of head and body 11 9 



Tail (vertebrae) 10 O 



Tail to the tip 13 O 



Height of ear O 7 



Height "to the end of fur O 9 



Palm to end of middle elaw 110 



Heel to end of middle nail 2 6 



Length of fur on the back O 7 



Breadth of tail with hairs extended . . 4 2 



As regards its geograpbical distribution, the northern limit of this 

 species is not determined ; it however exists as far as Hudson's Bay; 

 was formerly very common in the New England States, and in the 

 less cultivated portions is still freąuently met -with. It is abundant 

 in New York and the mountainous portions of Pennsylvania. Dr. 

 Bachman has observed it on the northern mountains of Virginia ; it 

 probably extends still further south : in the lower parts of North and 

 South Carolina, however, it is replaced by a smaller species. The 

 black variety is moi'e abundant in Upper Canada, in the westem part 

 of New York, and in the States of Ohio and Indiana. The Northern 

 Gray Sąuirrel does not exist in Georgia, Florida, or Alabama ; and 

 among specimens of Sąuirrels sent from Louisiana, stated to be all 

 the species existing in that State, be did not discover the present 

 species. 



In its habits Dr. Bachman describes the Sc. leucotis as one of the 

 most active species of Sąuirrel existing in the United States. It rises 

 with the sun, and continues industriously engaged in search of food 

 during four or five hours in the moming. In the middle of the day it 

 retires for a few hours to its nešt, and then resumes its labours tiU 

 sunset. In the varm \veather of spring and summer it builds a tem- 

 porary residence in the crutch of some tree, or in the fork of some 

 large branch. A pair of sąuirrels are employed on this nešt, -vv-hicli 

 is formed of drj' sticks and twigs, and lined with moss. In the winter 

 months these sąuirrels reside together in the hollows of trees,and there 

 the female brings forth her progeny. No instance has come under 

 Dr. Bachman's observation of their breeding in a statė of domesti- 

 cation. 



During the rutting season the malęs engage in freąuent contests, 

 and often wound each other severely. The very current notion that 

 they emasculate one another in these encounters, is supposed by 

 Dr. Bachman to have originated in the circumstance of the testes 

 diminishing in bulk at a certain period of the year, or in these or- 

 gans being retracted within the pelvis. 



The food of the Northern Gray Sąuirrel is likę that of the species 

 in general, nuts, seed, and grain ; it gives, however, the preference 

 to the several kinds of hickory. Its fondness for the green com and 

 young wheat renders it very obnoxious to the farmer, and various 



