SCIURIDA—CYNOMYS COLUMBIANUS. 905 
gray ; the upper is of a reddish brown: the lower part of the jaws, the under 
part of the neck, legs and feet, from the body and belly downwards, are of a 
light brick-red: the nose and eyes are of a darker shade, of the same colour: 
the upper part of the head, neck, and body are of a curious brown gray, with 
a slight tinge of brick red: the longer hairs of these parts are of a reddish 
white color at their extremities, and falling together give this animal a speckled 
appearance. ‘These animals form in large companies, like those on the Mis- 
souri, occupying with their burrows sometimes two hundred acres of land: 
the burrows are separate, and each possesses, perhaps, ten or twelve of these 
inhabitants. There is a little mound in front of the hole, formed of the earth 
thrown out of the burrow, and frequently there are three or four distinct holes, 
forming one burrow, with these entrances around the base of these little 
mounds. These mounds, sometimes about two feet in height and four in 
diameter, are occupied as watch-towers by the inhabitants of these little com- 
munities. The squirrels, one or more, are irregularly distributed on the tract 
they thus ocupy, at the distance of ten, twenty, or sometimes from thirty to 
forty yards. When any one approaches, they make a shrill whistling sound, 
somewhat resembling tweet, tweet, tweet, the signal for their party to take the 
alarin, and to retire into their intrenchments. They feed on the roots of 
grass, &¢.”* 
In this account, there is nothing respecting the external features of the 
animal that is not strictly applicable to the present species, as illustrated by 
the large suite of specimens before me, though the color of neither the dorsal 
or ventral surface is quite so red as one would naturally infer from their 
description of itt} Many specimens are, however, decidedly reddish above 
and rusty-yellow below, which is the ‘light brick red” of the above account. 
There is certainly a ‘‘slignt tinge of brick red” in the coloration of the upper 
surface. The description of the feet, so far as it goes, is strictly correct, the 
inner toe of the fore feet being ‘remarkably short” as compared with the 
other toes, and equipped with a “blunt nail”. not a “long nail, nearly the 
length of those of the other toes”, as stated by Audubon and Bachman, but 
still much longer than in the true Spermophiles and Squirrels, as is also the 
~ Lewis and Clarke’s Travels, lst Amer. ed. vol. ii, pp. 173, 174. 
t In respect to their account of the color of this animal, it may be noted that they deseribe their 
“Barking Squirrel” of the plains of the Upper Missouri as being of “a uniform bright brick-red and 
gray”, the former predominating, with the lower parts lighter, indicating that the redness is much 
stronger in the Missouri animal, as it really is. 
