RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



The Rodentia of Rhode Island. 



No. II. 



The family SciKvichr, or Squirrels, is vpp- 

 resented in Rhode Island by live genera and 

 five species. A general and brief history 

 of the family cannot be better rendered 

 than by Dr. Coues, in the new Standard 

 Natural History, published by S. E. Cas- 

 sino & Co. 



'' The ScUirkUe offer for consideration a 

 wide range of variation, which passes by 

 very gentle gradations from the large, 

 heav}-, terrestrial, and fosorial marmots, or 

 ground-hogs, with their short limbs, ears, 

 and tail, through the chipmunks, which 

 stand exactly on the dividing line, to the 

 agile, giaceful, and perfectly arboreal squir- 

 rels, whose trim limbs and long, shadowy 

 tails present the opposite end of the series, 

 the extreme link of which is furnished by 

 the almost aerial flying-squirrels. Through- 

 out these modifications of outward form, 

 and consequentl}' of habit, one set of tech- 

 nical characters prevails. The skull has 

 large and distinct post-orbital processes, 

 not developed elsewhere in the Sciurine al- 

 liance. There are normally two premolars 

 on each side above, and one below ; the first 

 of these, however, is always small, and de- 

 ciduous, so that ditferent individuals of the 

 same species even, may have the back teeth 

 'g" or 1^-. The molars are rooted and tu- 

 berculate ; the palate is broad and flat ; 

 the infra-orbital foraman is small, and an- 

 terior in position. Cheek-pouches are fre- 

 quentl}' developed, especially in the ground- 

 squirrels. The tail ranges from a stump to 

 the elegant bushy appendage which may 

 surpass the head and body in length and 

 width, and by the distichous arrangement 

 of the hairs, furnish a kind of awning to 

 cover the animal ; whence the pretty name 

 of Shade-tail {Sciarus:, which the Greeks 

 and Romans gave. There is, perhaps, no 

 more closely and evenly linked chain of 

 animals, of equal extent, than that which 

 has a woodchuck at one end and a flying- 

 squirrel at the other. 



The AVoodchuck, or GROUxn-rioG : 

 Arctomvs Monax. 



{Arctomys) a northern mouse {monax) 

 alone. Three species of Arctomys are found 

 in North America, but monax is the only one 



inhabiting Rhode Island, and of these we 

 have plenty of representatives scattered all 

 over the state, and in some towns in the 

 southern part a bounty on their heads is 

 offered, which is not altogether easy to ob- 

 tain, for the animal is very wary, and when 

 feeding or moving about the fields in the 

 day time, is continually standing up and 

 turning his head about on the lookout for 

 danger, and ready at a sound to start for 

 his hole. He is most likely to be met 

 abroad in early morning or toward the dusk 

 of evening, and does most of his feeding 

 at night, when he will accomplish much 

 damage among the farmers' cabbage, beans, 

 and turnips, or in the clover-field. He is 

 fond of sunning himself, lying on the dirt- 

 at the mouth of the hole. Though gener- 

 all}' so sh}' (as among other animals) all 

 caution seems sometimes forgotten, and 

 Mr. N. W. Thatcher tells me that twice he 

 has walked close up to one thus taking a 

 sun-bath. Sometimes there are two holes 

 near together, and in such case the dirt is 

 usually heaped up at one of them which 

 will be quite oblique, while the other, more 

 nearly perpendicular, will be smooth and 

 clean, which indicates somewhat that the 

 holes are connected and the clean one 

 wrought out from below, the dirt being car- 

 ried out of the other. Aliout the begin- 

 ning of November he disappears, mnX 

 hibernates until the first warm days of 

 spring. " His general haltitat is from 

 the Carolinas northward to Iludsou's Ba}', 

 and westward from the Atlantic coast to 

 Western Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota. 

 There is the greatest variation of color, the 

 extremes being white and brownish black, 

 or very dark brown. I ha\e never heard 

 of either of these beiug taken in Rhode 

 Island (but of both in Massachusetts), or 

 in fact of any coloi'ing different from the 

 average animal, which may be described as 

 measuring from tip to tip, twenty inches ; tail, 

 which is round and small near the body, 6 

 inches ; the ears, nearly lound, gray and 

 brown ; head a mixed brown and black, chin 

 gray, cheeks and thront yellow white ; under 

 parts yellow brown or red brown, with shad- 

 ing of dark gray or black ; color above 

 mixed black, white and yellow brown ; tail 

 mixed or darker brown ; the feet, armed 

 with stout claws, are black above and be- 

 low ; the hairs are rather coarse, and nearly 

 all are dark crrav at the base. 



