THE BRITISH OR LIGHT-TAILED SQUIRREL 697 
broad, while in side view it appears to be greatly flattened or 
compressed. 
The female has eight mamme, arranged in one pectoral, two 
abdominal, and one inguinal pairs. 
Pelage :—The fur is soft and fine, not spiny. It is comparatively 
short on the face, as well as on the belly, throat, inner surfaces of the 
limbs, and over the hands and feet. Passing backwards from the 
forehead, it becomes gradually longer and denser on the back and 
flanks towards the rump and tail, where it is most luxuriantly developed, 
and where the woolly underfur is most conspicuous. The hairs also 
attain a remarkable length upon the outer surfaces of the ears, and 
especially towards their tips in winter. 
There are quite distinct summer and winter coats, but the underside 
is at all seasons white; the sharp line of demarcation, on each side, 
runs from the chin to the axilla, where it forms a V upon the inner 
surface of the fore-limb, and from the posterior edge of the axilla along 
the lower edge of the flank to the region of the groin and anus. 
In complete summer coat the colour of the head, body, and limbs 
is rich rufous, the crown of the head as well as the posterior portion 
of the back to a variable extent greyer or browner ; the tail is creamy, 
and thinly haired; there are typically no ear-tufts; and the palms and 
soles are naked. The hairs are not annulated. 
In the winter the head and body is brownish-grey or greyish 
rufous brown; the limbs are rufous, but less so than in summer; the 
tail is blackish or brownish; the ear-tufts long and brown; the palms 
and soles hairy. The hairs are annulated. 
The above description holds good for a typical South English 
Squirrel, but the moults are very complicated, and the fur is continually 
undergoing change resulting in much normal variety, so that it might 
be found impossible to obtain individuals exactly matching the typical 
description. 
The changes are brought about by two annual moults of the body- 
fur and one only of the long hairs of the ear-tufts and the tail. In 
addition, the tail and ear-tufts undergo gradual bleaching from the 
deep brown of winter to the cream or straw colour of summer. This 
is an undoubted change of colour without replacement of the 
individual hairs. 
The summer body coat is coarse and short, reaching a length of 
about 13 mm. over the rump. It makes its first appearance in the 
south on about the 20th April, and is completely assumed in the 
course of about six weeks. A Galway specimen had not started 
assuming the summer pelage on 3rd June 1896. Starting from the 
muzzle, fingers, and toe-tips, it spreads backwards and bodywards 
over the face, hands, and feet, to the neck, flanks, and sides, until 
VOL. II. 2a 
