52 NELSON 



parts, including outside of legs, dark iron gray (rarely intermixed 

 with yellowish ringed hairs) ; feet similar but paler; ears dark grayish 

 or yellowish brown with distinct white basal patch; sides of head 

 dingy grayish ; ring around eye whitish ; area between eye and ear 

 often suffused with brownish; underparts white, sometimes slightly 

 grizzled with black; tail at base like rump; rest of tail, above black 

 heavily washed with white ; below, a broad median line of grizzled 

 dark iron gray bordered with black and edged with white, the white 

 often forming a thin wash over under surface. Hairs of back usually 

 black with white tips, but occasionally intermixed with others having 

 a median ring of buffy. 



Variation. — Specimens from the type locality show comparatively 

 little variation. The upperparts are sometimes paler or darker than 

 in typical specimens and the wash of black on crown and rump is 

 sometimes heavy enough to obscure the yellow patches. The feet 

 vary from iron gray to whitish gray but are never white. Black al- 

 ways predominates on lower side of tail but the amount of gray varies. 

 Compared with typical specimens those from Ameca are paler on the 

 back and lower surface of tail, and the nape and rump patches are 

 more obsolescent. 



Measurements. — Average of five adults from type locality : total 

 length 536; tail vertebra 267.2; hind foot 66.4. 



Cranial characters. — Premolars \. Skull indistinguishable from 

 that of S. poliopus. Five adult skulls from near type locality aver- 

 age : basal length 51.2; palatal length 27.6; interorbital breadth 

 19.8; zygomatic breadth 34.9; length of upper molar series 11. 7. 



Habits. — These handsome squirrels have a wide vertical range 

 In April they were found at an altitude of 4000 feet feeding on wild 

 figs in the canyon near Plantinar, at the east base of the Sierra Nevada 

 de Colima. On the north slope of the same mountain they were com- 

 mon and feeding on acorns among scrubby oaks at 6000 feet, and we 

 saw many gnawed pine cones at I2,cx)0 feet. Dr. Buller who col- 

 lected the type took a specimen at the latter altitude on this mountain. 

 Specimens examined. — Twenty-four : from Plantinar, Hacienda 

 San Marcos and elsewhere on slopes of Sierra Nevada de Colima, 

 and at Ameca, State of Jalisco. 



SCIURUS POLIOPUS COLIMENSIS Nelson. Colima Squirrel. 



Sciurus leucops Allen, Mon. N. Am. Rodentia, pp. 753-754, 1877 (part: 



specimens from Rio Coahuyana, Colima, Mexico). 

 Sciurus albipes colimensis'^YX&Q'ii, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, xil, p. 152, 



June 3, 1898. 

 Sciurus wagneri colitnensis Allen. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., N. Y., x, p. 



454, Nov., 1898 



