RODENTIA SCIURINAE TAMIAS QUADRIVITTATUS. 297 



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TAMIAS QUADRIVITTATUS. 



Missouri Striped Squirrel. 



Stiurus Quadrivittatus, SAY, in Long's Exped. R. Mts. II, 1823, 45. 

 HARLAN, Fauna Americana, 1825, 180. 

 GRIFFITH, Cuv. V, 1827, 255. 



WAGNER, in Schreber's Saugt. IV; plate cciv, A, (from Richardson, no text.) 

 Sdurus (Tamias) quadrivittatus, RICHARDSON, Zool. Jour. Ill, 1828/519. IB. Fauna Bor. Amer. I, 1829, 184 ; pi. xvi. 



FISCHER, Synopsis, 1829, 350. 

 lamias quadrivitiatus, WAGNER, Suppl. Schreb. Ill, 1843, 234. 



Aro. & BACH. N. Am. Quad. I, 1849, 195 ; pi. xxiv. 



SpermopJiilm quadrivittatus, F. CUVIER, Suppl. Buffon, I, Mammif. 1831, 340. 



Tamias minimus, BACHMAN, Jour. Acad. Nat. Sc. Phila. VIII, i, 1839,71. IB. Townsend's Narrative, 1839, 323. 

 WAGNER, Wiegmann's Archiv, 1843, II, 44. 



Sr. CH. Tail, with the hairs, nearly or quite as long as the body. A grayish white stripe along the top of the head, with 

 branches passing above and below the eye. The stripe bordered above and below by darker ones, and separated behind the 

 eye by a dark line. A gray or hoary patch behind the ears. Sides of body deep ferruginous ; back with five about equi 

 distant dark stripes, nearly black on the posterior part of the body, their intervals forming four grayish white lines of similar 

 dimensions to them. Tail when flattened out, ferruginous externally, then black, then ferruginous. Body beneath, dirty 

 grayish white. Length, 4 to 5 inches. Hind foot, 1.20 inch. 



A line of grayish white begins above the nostrils, on each side, and runs from the tip of the 

 snout along the edge of the head to near the eye. Here it bifurcates, one branch passing above, 

 the other below the eye, and wider than at first, extend nearly parallel to each other, the lower 

 one to the anterior base of the ear, the upper not so far. The upper and lower margins of this 

 bifurcating line are darker, bordered by rather narrow lines of dark reddish brown, mixed with 

 dark brown ; the lower extending to the posterior edge of the ear, or in fact beneath it, where 

 it becomes diffused. The eyelids are black ; this color continuous behind with a stripe of dark 

 brown, which separates the light stripe, and changing into reddish brown extends up to the 

 anterior margin of the ear. The dark stripes bordering the upper light ones are confluent on 

 the top of the snout. Top of the head mixed gray, reddish, and brown. 



The concavity of the ear, or its inside, is covered with short reddish hairs ; of its convexity, 

 the anterior half, with the inflected portion, is dark brownish black, the posterior, grayish 

 white, continuous with a patch of the same half an inch long behind the ear. 



A narrow dark dorsal line begins at the occiput and extends to the root of the tail, widening 

 about midway and then contracting towards the end. Another commences on each side of this, 

 just back of the gray patch mentioned above, and widening like the dorsal line, and slightly 

 concave to it, extends likewise to the root of the tail. The sides of the body are broadly reddish 

 brown or fox color, more grayish posteriorly. Anteriorly the upper edge of this color is deeper 

 ferruginous, becoming dark brown, nearly black posteriorly. There are thus five dark stripes 

 on the dorsal surface ; the three central ones mixed reddish brown and dark brown on the ante 

 rior half of body, then becoming nearly pure blackish brown. They are separated by four 

 grayish white lines of equal width with the dark ones ; anteriorly they are mixed with reddish 

 brown, especially the two inner ; the outer are nearly pure from above the axillae. The exterior 

 surfaces of the limbs are pale rusty ; the body beneath is grayish white, with a tinge of rusty. 



The tail above is mixed, ferruginous and black ; beneath, uniform ferruginous ; of the hairs 

 individually, the extreme base is black, then rusty, black and rusty in nearly equal proportions, 

 the black increasing, however, towards and at the tip. 

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