x hi ead fea ours 
Se sg 
ry MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA. 159 
premolars two. Fore limb with a catilaginous spur from the 
|  earpus to which is attached the volar fascia passing like the 
string of ashur through the hairy fold of skin serving for flight. 
Fur very soft, tail with distichous pelage, ears large, eyes very 
large. 
(My notes on this genus having been lost only a brief ac 
count of the common species is now possible. ) 
Sciuropterus volucella PAu. 
(Plate VII.) 
This beautiful species is extremely variable. The eastern 
United States is inhabited by the variety volucella which rarely 
exceeds 54inches in length of body, the tail being somewhat less. 
The color is a soft yellowish brown above, white or cream 
colored below. The middle of the back and especially the upper 
surface of the tail is darker than the remainder. The under 
pelage is plumbeous or black and this frequently appears along 
the edges of the wings and the terminal portion of the tail. 
The species is dispersed throughout the wooded parts of 
North America as far south as Central America. 
In Minnesota it is extremely local. It often becomes a 
familiar visitor in the door yards of country homes, flitting 
from tree to tree at dusk and taking its pay by constant and 
ill-timed forages upon the corn-cribs. Though very skillful 
the little animals sometimes overestimate their powers and 
falling short are precipitated to the earth, but their agility is 
so great that they are almost instantly in their place in the 
tree tops. When captured they make as engaging and sprightly 
’ pets as could be expected of nocturnal animals. To the noc- 
turnal habit may be attributed the comparative constancy of the 
color pattern in spite of variation in other respects. The 
rodents which are exposed to diurnal conditions being, on the 
other hand, most variable in this particular. 
The families are large and domestic, but little is known of 
the household economy. 
GreNuS TAMIAS, ILL. 
‘‘Skull narrowed anteriorly; post-orbital process long, 
very slender, directed downward and backward; plane of malar 
bone more oblique, and the zygomatic process of the maxillary 
more expanded and depressed than in Sciuruws, but rather less so 
