SCIURIDA—SCIURUS NIGER VAR. NIGER. 719 
say :—‘‘ Perhaps none of our Squirrels are subject to greater varieties of color 
than the present; we have seen specimens in (formerly) Peale’s Museum, of 
every tint, from light-gray almost to black. Two others that came under 
our observation were nearly white... . We have represented. in the 
plate three of these Squirrels, all of different colors, but the varieties of tint 
to be observed in different specimens of the Cat Squirrel are so great that 
among fifty or more perhaps, we never could find two exactly alike; for 
which reason we selected for our drawing an orange-colored one, a gray one, 
and one nearly black.”* 
In general, var. cinereus is smaller than var. niger, and may be distin- 
guished from it by the absence of a distinctly white nose and white ears. 
This, however, is an arbitrary character, since specimens, particularly from 
Maryland and Virginia, have the nose and ears only grayish rather than 
whitish, with sometimes the ears not ‘lighter than the surrounding surface. 
Florida specimens of var. niger, on the other hand, have the nose merely 
grayish, and the ears not lighter than the back, while the grayish nose-patch 
is small, and sometimes almost wholly restricted to the sides of the nose. 
Hasit.t.—Atlantic States from Virginia northward to Southern New 
York and Soythern New England; ranges farther southward in the Allegha- 
nies, perhaps to Georgia. 
Var. NIGER. 
Southern Fox Squirrel. 
VARIETAL CHARS.—Larger; length of body generally about 13.50, ranging 
from 12 to15. Tail-vertebree about 11, ranging from 10.25 to 12.50; tail to 
end of hairs 14, ranging from 14 to 16. Color variable, but with the nose and 
ears whitish, usually in strong contrast with the rest of the dorsal surface. 
Color generally gray above (rather darker than in yar.cinereus), whitish beneath, 
with the tail whitish beneath and on the edges. Varies to more or less fulvous 
and rufous phases, but more frequently to dusky and black. Often with only 
the feet, legs, and lower surface black. In the dusky varieties, the head 
(except the nose and ears) is often intense black. Sometimes with the under 
parts rufous, and often with the whole pelage mixed dusky and rufous, or 
with the limbs and head black, and a narrow black dorsal and ventral band. 
Equally variable in color with the preceding, from which it is to be commonly 
*Quadrupeds of North America, vol. i, pp. 146, 147. 
