SQUIRRELS OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 63 



Sciurus variegatus Alston, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1878, pp. 660-662 

 (part); Biol. Cent. -Am., Mamm., pp. 127-128, 1880 (part: specimens 

 from Tehuantepec); Sumichrast, La Naturaleza, v, p. 324, 1882 (part : 

 specimens from southern part of Isthmus of Tehuantepec and Chiapas 

 — not S. variegatus ErxL, 1777). 

 Sciurus aurcigaster h\.\.YM, Mon. N. Am. Rodentia, pp. 750-753. 1877 (part: 



specimens from Tehuantepec and Santa Efigenia, Oaxaca). 

 Sciurus leucops Allen. Mon. N. Am. Rodentia, pp. 753-756 (part : speci- 

 mens from Tehuantepec). 

 Type locality. — Vicinity of Tehuantepec City, Oaxaca, Mexico. 

 Type in Berlin Museum. 



Distribution. — Arid tropical lowland forests along the Pacific 

 coast from Puerto Angel, Oaxaca, south to Tonala and Tuxtla, 

 Chiapas, Mexico, and up the river valley to Nenton, Guatemala 

 (below 3000 feet). 



Characters. — Nape patch usually well defined, rusty rufous; back 

 dingy whitish gray overlying yellowish or rusty ; underparts varying 

 from white or buffy to bright ferruginous. Pelage thin, hairs of 

 back coarse and stiff ; under fur short ; tail long and narrow. Teats : 

 p. \ a. f i. f 



Co/or.— Nose and fore part of crown grizzled iron gray; nape patch 

 rusty rufous slightly washed with black ; rest of upperparts whitish, 

 rather coarsely grizzled with black, and shaded with underlying yel- 

 lowish or rusty rufous ; rump patch usually obsolete but sometimes 

 more distinctly rusty rufous than surrounding area ; feet like back ; 

 ears grizzled gray and rufous, with basal patch white ; extension of nape 

 patch around bases of ears, and over cheeks, including eyes, paler and 

 more yellowish brown than main area ; ring around eye dingy fulvous ; 

 sides of nose and cheeks below eyes dingy grayish white; underparts 

 varying from pure white to pale buffy and bright rufous. Tail all 

 around at base like rump; rest of tail, above black heavily washed 

 with white ; below, median area varying from pale fulvous gray (in 

 worn fur) to rich orange — or dark rufous (in good fur), bordered by 

 narrow band of black and edged with white. Hairs on back black, 

 narrowly tipped with white and mixed with others having broad sub- 

 terminal rings of rusty rufous; or in some specimens with white tips 

 and broader sub-basal rufous rings 



Variation.— Sciurus socialis is a variable species, characterized by 

 general hoariness of back with pale rusty under color showing through, 

 and rusty nuchal patch. The color of upperparts varies according to 

 the proportionate amount of grayish white and yellowish rufous ; 

 sometimes the back is hoary whitish and sometimes the white is re- 

 stricted and the underlying reddish or rusty becomes prominent. In 

 Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci., May, 1899. 



