SCIURIDA—SPERMOPHILUS GRAMMURUS AND VARIETIES. 831 
which is, in fact, its nearest affine, though differing greatly from it in color 
and in the size of the ears and the character of the tail. 
The varieties of grammurus differ from each other somewhat in size, 
but mainly in coloration. The difference in size between vars. grammurus 
and beechey?, as indicated by the measurements of the skulls of the two forms, 
is perhaps in part due to locality ; all the grammurus specimens being from 
the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico, while the beecheyi speci- 
mens come almost wholly from Fort Tejon, Lower California. The difference 
in size between vars. beecheyi and douglassi seems susceptible of a similar 
explanation, the larger (douwgdasst) being northern. Between beecheyi and 
douglassi, the intergradation is most thorough, while beecheyi passes gradually 
into grammurus. Specimens from the most distant localities are sometimes 
quite indistinguishable, as in the case of No. 9568, from Golden City, Colo., 
and No. 3618, from Fort Tejon, Cal., between which there is no essential 
difference in coloration. In var. beecheyz, the ear appears to be generally a 
little higher, narrower, and more pointed than in var. grammurus. 
SYNONYMY AND NOMENCLATURE.—Var. grammurus was first described by 
Mr. Say in 1823, from specimens obtained on the headwaters of the Arkan- 
sas, now within the State of Colorado. Its first synonym is the Spermophilus 
couchi, described by Professor Baird, in 1855, from black specimens collected 
by Lieut. D. N. Couch in the provinces of New Leon and Tamaulipas, near 
the United States and Mexican boundary-line. It is distinguishable only by 
its color from var. grammurus, of which it is merely a melanistic phase. Its 
next and only other synonym is the Spermophilus buckleyi, described by Dr. 
Slack in 1861, from a specimen from the Pecos River, also based on speci- 
mens in melanistic condition, in which the anterior half of the dorsal surface 
is black, and the hairs elsewhere have much more black than usual at the 
tips. Another specimen, from near the same locality, also shows a melanistic 
tendency. There are also in the collection melanistic specimens of var, beecheyt 
from Fort Tejon. As stated by Professor Baird, the Sciwrus grammurus of 
Say was wholly lost sight of for many years, until it was rediscovered by the 
Government expeditions sent out about 1853-56; it is not alluded to by 
Audubon and Bachman in their general work on the Quadrupeds of North 
America; and it is referred fo by Dr. Giebel as late as 1855 as a doubtful or 
indeterminable species. 
Vars. beecheyi and douglassi were both described by Dr. Richardson in 
