264 



U. 8. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS ZOOLOGY GENERAL REPORT. 



broader. The nasal bones have their edges nearly parallel for the posterior third, instead of 

 approaching each other gently behind. The teeth are smaller in proportion. 



One skull, one of three from San Antonio, shows the anterior small molar. This may be 

 the same, or it may belong to a distinct species. It measures 2.33 inches by 1.38. 



List of specimens. 



SCIURUS FOSSOE, Peale. 



California Gray Squirrel. 



Sciurus fossor, PEALE, Mamm. and Birds U. S. Ex. Ex. 1848, 55. 



AUD. & BACH. N. Am. Quad. Ill, 1854, 264; pi. cliii, f. 2. 

 Sciurus heermanni, LECONTE, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phila. VI, Sept. 1852, 149. 



? ?? Sciurus leporinus, ATJD. & BACH., Pr. A. N. Sc. Ph. 1841, 101. IB. Jour. A. N. Sc. Ph. VIII, n, 1842, 314. IB. N. 

 Am. Quad. I, 1849, 329; pi. xliii. 



S P . CH. Size of S. vulpinus, but more slender. Tail vertebra as long as the body, with tho hairs much longer. Five upper 

 molars. Above, grizzled bluish gray and black; beneath, white, without any differently colored separating line. Tail black, 

 with the exterior white; the whole under surface finely grizzled. Back of ears and adjacent tuft on the occiput, chestnut. 



This beautiful species of squirrel is among the largest of those that inhabit the North Ameri 

 can continent, and on the west coast represents the gray squirrels of the Atlantic States. 

 Judging from skins, however, it is rather more slender and delicate in its proportions than the 

 latter. 



The head is rather pointed and narrow ; the whiskers black and reaching beyond the occiput. 

 The ears are thin, narrow, and high, somewhat pointed, but rounded at tip ; they are coated 

 with short compact hairs, not at all tufted ; as in the S. carolinensis, however, there is a woolly 

 tuft at the postero-internal base of the ear, the adjacent region of the latter also somewhat 

 woolly. 



The tail is very long, and rather full and depressed ; in fresh specimens the vertebras alone 

 equal the head and body. The hairs are long and rather soft. The feet are long but narrow ; 

 the soles are nearly naked in summer ; in winter they are densely coated (especially in the 

 north) with hairs, except on the tubercles. Even at San Diego, winter specimens exhibit a con 

 siderable amount of hair on the soles. 



This species presents fewer variations in color than any of the larger American squirrels 

 within my knowledge. The prevailing color above is a mixed or finely grizzled bluish gray 

 and black, the former predominating. This color covers nearly two-thirds, at least three-fifths, 



