SQUIRREL. 



RAFFLES' SQUIRREL. A figure of this is given in 

 the plate. It was discovered on the island of Sinca- 

 pore ; but it is probably found in many other of the 

 adjacent places. It is greyish-brown above, with 

 cross bands ; while on the head and the whole of the 

 under part, and with a rusty-brown slreak along the 

 side, as in the preceding species ; the tail is dark 

 coloured, quite round, rather thicker at the middle 

 than at the origin, and tapering to a point. The 

 hair upon it is loose, but it is not well adapted for 

 acting as a parachute, and there is no enlargement of 

 the skin of the sides to assist in the performing of that 

 operation. The body and head are about nine inches 

 in length, and the tail is an inch or an inch and a half 

 shorter. Little or nothing is known of their habits ; 

 but it is supposed that all the round-tailed squirrels 

 are more or less ground animals. 



THE SLENDER SQUIRREL (S. tennis") is another 

 species of the oriental isles, first noticed in Dr. Hors- 

 field's interesting account of the animals of that part 

 of the world. It has much resemblance to the pre- 

 ceding species in its general form, but it is much 

 smaller and differently coloured. Altogether the 

 length of it is only about ten inches and a half, of 

 which the tail measures five. The upper part is 

 clouded with black, dark brown, and tawny, passing 

 into tawny on the sides, and into yellowish-grey on 

 the under part. The colours all melt gradually into 

 each other, without any line on the side. The neck 

 and the sides of the head are tawny. The tail is 

 greyish with obscure black bands and minute spots of 

 tan colour ; and the single hairs are annulated, tawny 

 at the base, black in the middle, and grey at the 

 points. The tail ends in a long slender brush of a 

 grey colour. It appears that the habits are, partly at 

 least, those of a ground animal ; but little is known 

 of them with any thing like certainty. 



From the great quantity of food that there is in 

 the forests of the oriental isles, both for tree squirrels 

 and ground ones, it is highly probable that there are 

 many more species in them than have been described ; 

 and also that they are very generally distributed. 

 They are, however, subject to so much variation in 

 colour that their history could not be rendered per- 

 fect, without more research than can be expected in 

 places so difficult to be explored, so unhealthy in 'the 

 humid places, and so infested with dangerous animals, 

 and with men hardly less dangerous in some of the 

 inland fastnesses. The early notices of the animals 

 of this portion of the globe are but little to be de- 

 pended on ; and thus it is possible that the gingi 

 squirrel, formerly mentioned, may belong to the pre- 

 sent section, and to the eastern isles. 



III. Squirrels with cheek-pouches, and the hair on 

 the under s'de of the tail divergent, from the mesial 

 line for the whole length of that organ. 



The squirrels with cheek-pouches are very widely 

 scattered over the world, although they do not inha- 

 bit continuously in any one locality. Some are men- 

 tioned as inhabiting far north in America, and a very 

 analogous species, if not. a mere climatal variety of 

 the same one, occurs in Siberia. In the United States 

 there are several, and some are found in Mexico, 

 though we arc not. aware of the existence of any in 

 South America. There are, however, some in Africa 

 and in central Asia ; and we may be prepared to 

 meet with all sorts of squirrels in the oriental isles. 

 Squirrels of this third section chiefly gather their food 

 upon the ground ; and carry it to their young, or to 



717 



their hoards in the collecting season, in their cheek- 

 pouches. We must do little else than name a few of 

 the species. 



STRIPED SQUIRREL (S. ttriatui). An American 

 and an Asiatic variety of this species have been de- 

 scribed ; but it is probable that they inhabit a con- 

 tinuous zone in the two continents, from Carolina 

 westward to the central longitudes of Siberia, with 

 only the interruption of the Strait of Behring and the 

 narrow part of the North Pacific. The American 

 variety is a very small animal, not above half the 

 dimensions of the common squirrel of Europe, though 

 resembling it in colour, only there is a yellowish- 

 white band along each flank, bordered at each side 

 with a stripe of black ; and there is another black 

 stripe down the ridge of the back. The hairs on the 

 tail are much shorter than those on the other squirrels, 

 so that that organ is but ill adapted for acting as a 

 parachute. The Asiatic variety is described as being 

 rather larger in the body, being about five inches in 

 length, but the tail is only three. The general colour 

 of the upper part is tawny-brown, marked with stripes 

 similar in colour, in number, and 'in arrangement, to 

 those on the American variety. The shoulders and 

 the fore paws are dull tawny, and so is the rump be- 

 tween the lines. The outsides of the thighs, the hind 

 feet, and the hair of the tail, are bright russet. This 

 variety extends over a very great range of longitude 

 in the north of Asia, indeed over the greater part of 

 Siberia. The species, whether as American or as 

 Asiatic, is intermediate in its habits between the 

 hamsters and the squirrels properly so called. The 

 individuals are rarely, if ever, found climbing trees ; 

 they are ground animals, collecting the seeds of vari- 

 ous kinds of plants from the surface of the earth, and 

 making use of their cheek-pouches to carry the food 

 to their magazines. They nestle in burrows, which 

 they usually construct under bushes, or the spray at 

 the roots of tree?. The burrow generally has two 

 entrances and two chambers, one of which is the 

 dwelling and the other the store ; and the spray, 

 whether of bush or of tree, under which they are 

 placed, helps to defend both against the rains. With 

 their collected store in the magazine, they contrive to 

 live tolerably well under the snow, which lies long 

 above their dwellings in the inclement season of the 

 year. 



THIRTEEN-LINED SQUIRREL (S.tridccemimbricatus). 

 This is an American species, about the same size in 

 the body as the American variety of the preceding, 

 and with a tail about three inches in length. The 

 body is very slender, and the muzzle pointed. The 

 colour on the upper part is dark chestnut, with a 

 white line down the middle of the back, formed of 

 little spots nearly confluent with each other. On 

 each side of this line there are three continuous ones, 

 alternating with three rows of spots ; and this, with 

 the portions of the ground colour between, make up 

 the thirteen lines, from which the name of the squirrel 

 is derived. This is rather a rare species in North 

 America, the only place in which it has been found ; 

 and nothing is known of its habits, though the analogy 

 leads us to conclude that it is a ground squirrel, and 

 not a tree one. 



HUDSON'S-BAY SQUIRREL (S. Hudsonius). This is 

 one of the most northerly of the American squirrels, 

 and well known to the Esquimaux, who call it Siksik. 

 It is rather less than the common squirrel of Europe. 

 Its colours are : reddish-brown on the back and the 



