674 MONOGRAPHS OF NORTH AMERICAN RODENTIA. 
Var. HUDSONIUS. 
Eastern Chickaree. 
Average length from the end of the nose to the base of the tail 6.75 
(for New England specimens); tail, to end of vertebra, 4.50; tail, to end 
of hairs, about 6.00. Above, pale grayish-fulvous, each hair narrowly once or 
twice ringed with black; below, pure white, or white with faint annulations 
of black. Generally, the middle of the back is red, this color forming a 
broad mesial band, extending from the front of the head continuously to the 
end of the vertebrae of the tail. In many specimens, there is a short, con- 
spicuous, black, lateral line. The ears are blackish toward and at the end, 
and have, in winter, a short, bushy pencil, or tuft. The upper surface of the 
feet is generally more or less tawny, often bright golden, but sometimes is 
of the same tint as the sides of the body. The tail above is centrally of 
the same color as the back, bordered with a conspicuous, broad bar of black, 
aud edged and tipped with yellowish; below, yellowish-gray. 
Different specimens from the same locality vary greatly in color irre- 
spective of season or sex. A small proportion of the specimens have a 
conspicuous black lateral line separating the white of the lower surface from 
the gray of the upper surface. Generally, not more than one specimen in ten 
is thus marked, and such specimens are found, on careful examination, to be 
in summer pelage. Yet only a small proportion of those in summer pelage 
are thus marked, while I have never met with it in any specimen in winter 
pelage. Many of those thus marked are evidently the young of the year, 
and I am hence led to believe that it is a temporary feature of coloration 
characteristic of animals less than a year old, and that it permanently disap- 
pears with the first autumnal moult. I find, however, two specimens with a 
distinct lateral line that are adult females. The same mark occurs in the 
other varieties of this species, but it is often absent in those in winter pelage. 
Its more frequent presence in specimens of the western forms is easily 
explainable, in part at least, from nearly all having been collected in summer. 
The red mesial band of the dorsal surface varies greatly in tint and in 
breadth, being sometimes merely a narrow line, and again occupying more 
than one-third of the dorsal surface. The color of this band varies from 
light yellowish-red to dark cherry-red. The hairs of the middle portion of 
the band are generally wholly red to the ends; at other times, they are all 
