RODENTIA SCIURINAE SCIURUS ABERTI. 



267 



posterior bases are grayish white in S. castanonotus. GTreat differences again are visible in the 

 tail, which, in the latter, is nearly pure black and white ; the inferior hairs pure white, those 

 on the upper surface and upper part of the sides are black with white tips, grayish at the base. 

 In S. aberti all the hairs above are annulated several times with dark brown and grayish white, 

 presenting no decided impression of either color except towards the end of the tail. The tail 

 here is likewise much more bushy. 



S.fossor is without the dorsal stripe and the dark lateral line. The tail is much fuller and 

 more bushy; the hairs beneath the tail are finely annulated ash gray and black without any of 

 them being entirely white. The feet, also, are dark colored. 



The skull of this species is- of very nearly the same size with that of S. carolinensis, from 

 Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Like this species it has the anterior small upper molar, making five ; 

 but this is considerably larger in the New Mexican animal, and has a central tubercle on the 

 crown, with a lateral valley on either side, as in the spermophiles. There are no other differ 

 ences of importance. 



The name of castanotus, as originally published, was a typographical error, not detected until 

 too late, and conveys an erroneous impression in regard to the color of the ears. 



List of specimens. 



SCIURUS ABERTI, Woodhouse. 



Tnft Eared Squirrel. 



Sciurus dorsalis, WOODHOUSE, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phil. VI, June, 1852, 110. (San Francisco Mountains, Cal.) 



Sciurus aberti, WOODHOUSE, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phil. VI, Dec. 1852, 220. IB. Sitgreaves' Zuni Exped. 1853, 53; 



mammals, pi. vi. 

 AUD. and BACH. N. Am. Quad. Ill, 1854, 262 ; pi. cliii. fig. 1. 



ST. CH. Above finely grizzled bluish gray and black ; a broad dorsal stripe of pure chestnut from shoulders to tail ; 

 under parts and feet white ; a distinct dark line on each side the belly. Tail very full and bushy, as long as the body ; 

 pure white beneath, above mixed black and white. Ears with long tufts springing from the superior border of the ear, as 

 in Sciurus vulgaris. Head and body about 11 inches long. 



This is one of the handsomest of all the American squirrels, on account of its large size, full 

 and long tail, and tufted ears. It has hitherto been found only in the San Francisco mountains 

 of New Mexico, from which the specimen I have before me was brought by Dr. Woodhouse. 

 Many hundred specimens of this species were observed in the same range by Dr. Kennerly, all 

 of them conspicuous for their tufted ears. 



This squirrel is about the size of the western fox squirrel, although it exceeds it in the com 

 parative length and fullness of the tail. The ears are high and narrow, and remarkable for the 

 flattened tuft of hairs which crown the superior half of the ear, springing from the extreme 

 margin, or on the upper part of the convexity : the posterior margin of the ear is also tufted to 



