THE TRUE SQUIRRELS 1245 



ford states that these animals may be commonly seen in the neighborhood of 

 Annesley Bay in rocky places, associating in parties of five or six individuals. The 

 striped Abyssinian spiny squirrel (X. leucoumbrinus] agrees with the last in having 

 external ear conchs, but differs in its longitudinally-striped body; in the latter 

 respect it resembles the Cape spiny squirrel (X. setosus} of South Africa, in which, 

 however, the conchs of the ears are wanting. The small spiny squirrel (X. getulus), 

 which is also striped, is the most diminutive member of the group, and in size and 

 appearance much resembles the Indian palm-squirrel. A fossil species of this genus 

 occurs in the Miocene deposits of France. 



THE TRUE SQUIRRELS 

 Genus Sciurus 



The common squirrel is the sole representative in Western Europe of an ex- 

 ceedingly large and widely-distributed genus, of which the following are the lead- 

 ing characteristics. The tail is very long and bushy; the ears are in most cases of 

 considerable size, and may be surmounted with tufts of long hair; and in the fore- 

 limbs there are only four functional toes, owing to the rudimental condition of the 

 one corresponding to the human thumb. The claws are long, curved, and sharp, 

 while the female may have either four or six teats. From that of the spiny 

 squirrels the skull differs by its shortened form and the elongation of the backwardly- 

 directed (postorbital) processes defining the hinder border of the sockets of the eyes. 

 The molar teeth are low crowned and of a simple type, those of the lower jaw 

 having the grinding surface basin-shaped, with a longitudinal wall on the inner 

 and outer sides, and no transverse plates formed by infoldings of the enamel; and 

 the first upper premolar, if present, is small and may be shed at an early age. 



While the common squirrel is of a uniform brownish-red color on the upper 

 parts, many of the tropical species are most brilliantly tinted with orange and other 

 bright colors, while others, like the little Indian palm-squirrel, have their bodies 

 ornamented with longitudinal light stripes on a dark ground. One of the Malayan 

 species, which is ordinarily gray, assumes a brilliant orange-colored dress during 

 the breeding season; and some of the North- American species also undergo a 

 seasonal change of coloration, one of them having a dark stripe along the sides of 

 the body in summer, which completely disappears in winter. There is great differ- 

 ence in the size of the various species, the large Malayan squirrel (Saurus bicolor) 

 from India and the Malay region measuring about forty inches or more in total 

 length, while the Indian palm-squirrel does not exceed a weasel in size. 



The true squirrels inhabit the temperate and tropical portions of the 

 whole globe, with the exception of Madagascar and the Australasian 

 region. The number of species probably does not fall far short of fifty or sixty, and 

 these are most numerous in the Malayan region, which may be regarded as 

 the headquarters of the group. There is, however, great difficulty in deciding 

 as to the real number of species, since a large number of squirrels, especially 



