SQUIRREL, 



a large portion of the quadrant. There seem also to 

 be longitudinal differences of these animals in the 

 severe latitude of America ; for those which occur on 

 the right bank of the Mississippi are richer in the 

 colour than those that are in the Atlantic side of the 

 country. This \ve might perhaps be led to expect, 

 as the western country is more dry and also more 

 tropical in all its characters. 



THE BLACK SQUIRREL (S. niger] is coloured very 

 similarly to the masked squirrel already mentioned, 

 but is not above half the dimensions. Its face is 

 described as being in general black, but with some 

 white markings very differently placed in different 

 individuals. In some the nose is white, in others 

 the feet ; in others, again, the tip of the tail ; yet, 

 again, there is a white collar round the neck ; and 

 these markings may all appear in the same individual, 

 or any number of them may appear in any of the 

 combinations which they can form. These circum- 

 stances render the history of the species uncertain ; 

 but. it appears, if a distinct species, to be pretty widely 

 spread, for it has been obtained in the States and 

 also in Mexico. It is described as being a much 

 more social animal than the grey squirrel of Caro- 

 lina. 



The squirrels of the tropical parts of America, and 

 also those of the extreme north of the States and of 

 Canada, appear to belong to the other section of the 

 genus. 



The squirrels of Africa and Asia, especially those 

 of the south-east part of the latter, and of the adjoin- 

 ing isles, are very numerous, and some of them are 

 of much larger dimensions, than the greater part at 

 least of those which we have noticed. The greater 

 number of them, however, have little more history 

 than what is to be found in a museum catalogue, and 

 could not, therefore, afford much interest of a popu- 

 lar kind. We shall, accordingly, restrict ourselves 

 to very short notices of two or three of them, which 

 we shall take in places considerably wide of each 

 other, as this will give the best idea as to how they 

 are diversified, so as to be adapted to the very wide 

 ranjre to which we have alluded. 



BARBARY SQUIRREL (S. getcllm}. This is a small 

 species, one-third less in its dimensions than the 

 common squirel of Europe ; that is to say, the total 

 length of the head, body, and tail, is only about nine 

 or ten inches, of which the tail occupies more than 

 one half. It inhabits the woods on the slopes of the 

 mountains of Atlas, and is said to occur also near the 

 south-western deserts in Asia. The upper part of 

 the body is brown, with four longitudinal stripes of 

 white, extending from the shoulder to the base of the 

 tail ; the belly is white ; the tail reddish ash, mottled 

 with small points of black. Its habits are little 

 known. 



MADAGASCAR SQUIRREL (S. Madagascarensis). 

 This species is about double the dimensions of the 

 common squirrel. It is deep black on the upper 

 part, yellowish white on the cheeks and under part 

 of the neck, and yellowish brown on the belly ; the 

 tail is black, and there are no tufts to the ears ; it 

 has the tail very long, considerably exceeding both 

 the body and the head ; and in this, as well as in 

 some other particulars, it resembles the squirrels of 

 some parts of the East. 



PALM SQUIRREL (S. palmarum) is a small species, 

 not much, if at all, exceeding the Barbary squirrel in 

 size, and having a considerable resemblance to that 



715 



in some other respects. The hair upon this one is 

 short and rather coarse, and there are no tufts to the 

 ears. The ground colour is reddish brown, mottled 

 with grey, and marked by two or three longitudinal 

 lines of white along each side ; the under part is 

 yellowish white ; the tail is reddish brown on the 

 upper side, and whitish bordered, and sometimes 

 striped with dusky black on the under. As is the 

 case with many of the others, this species appears to 

 be subject to many varieties of colour, for the stripes 

 are sometimes lighter in the colour than the rest of 

 the upper part, and sometimes darker. They vary 

 in number too, being sometimes five, or a dorsal one 

 and two lateral ones on each side ; sometimes three, 

 and occasionally nearly obliterated. The hairs on 

 the sides of the tail are erectile, so that it spreads out 

 in the form of a leaf; but, though it can be raised to 

 a considerable angle with the axis of the body, it 

 cannot be completely removed, as in the common 

 squirrel, and indeed in most of the species. It has 

 been chiefly, if not exclusively, found in western 

 Africa, near the banks of the Senegal and the Gambia, 

 and in the Cape Verd islands. It is a very pretty 

 little animal, and the expansions and contractions of 

 the breadth of the tail, by the erection and pronation 

 of the hair, is curious, though not peculiar to this 

 animal. As to what difference of habit is connected 

 with this peculiarity of the tail, we have no positive 

 information. 



THE GINGI SQUIRREL (S. Ginglanus] is a native 

 of the south of Africa, and, though it has some resem- 

 blance to the other African species that we have 

 mentioned, it also differs from them in many respects. 

 The upper part is greyish brown, the hair is pure 

 white on the basal part, and annulated with black 

 and brown towards the tips ; it is short and coarse ; 

 and on the under part of the body, which is pure 

 white, there is very little hair ; the basal part of the 

 tail is nearly the same colour as the back ; but the 

 distal part has the hairs white, with the exception of 

 a portion of the middle of the length, which is brown. 

 Specimens of various other squirrels have come into 

 Europe from Africa, and it is by no means unlikely 

 that there are many in the country of which we are 

 ignorant. It is also very probable that African and 

 Asiatic species have been confounded with each 

 other by the dealers at the Cape. When both Java 

 and southern Africa were in the hands of the Dutch, 

 there was no possibility of wholly avoiding blunders 

 of this kind. The dealers at Cape Town got skins 

 in the country from the settlers, and they had them 

 also from Java and the other parts of the East. 

 Sometimes specimens of the one place were most in 

 demand, and sometimes specimens of the other, and 

 the dealer generally named his commodity so as to 

 suit the best market ; and, as those about which no- 

 body knew any thing were the most prized on account 

 of their novelty, matters went on, and there were no 

 means of detecting the mistake till people began to 

 travel and observe for themselves. In a merely 

 mercantile point of view, there could not be said to 

 be any very great fraud in this mode of proceeding ; 

 for the skin of a squirrel is of exactly the same in- 

 trinsic value as a commodity, in whatever part of the 

 world the animal may have lived ; but in settling 

 the geography of the animal it is a very different 

 matter. 



The rich and wooded parts of India, and the 

 Oriental isles, especially the latter, are, however, the 



