192 



THE CHIPPING SQUIRKEL. 



The usual color of the Squirrel's fur is a ruddy brown upon the back, 

 and a grayish white on the hinder portions of the body. It is, however, 

 a most variable animal in point of color, the tint of its fur changing 

 according to the country which it inhabits. Even in England the 

 ruddy fur is sometimes changed to gray during a severe winter, and in 

 Siberia it is generally of a bluish gray. The feathery tufts of hair 

 which fringe the ears are liable to great modification, being very long 

 and full in winter and in cold climates, and almost entirely lost during 

 the hotter summer months of our own country. 



There are so many species of the Squirrel tribe that even a cursory 

 notice of each animal would be wholly impracticable in a work of the 

 present dimensions, and we must content ourselves with a brief descrip- 

 tion of those species which stand out more boldly from the rest by 

 reason of form, color, or peculiar habits. 



The Hackee — or Chipping Squirrel, as it is sometimes termed — 

 is one of the most familiar of North American quadrupeds, and is 



found in great 

 numbers in al- 

 most every lo- 



P I'^^^'^^^^^S^^^^BIMKIS*^^ / "'I ^''^'^^* It is a 

 k .^l'^^'' • r^^^J^^^Bm^^^^ i^, ., / kIA, 'a truly beautiful 



little creature, 

 and deserving of 

 notice both on 

 account of the 

 dainty elegance 

 //V 'f its form and 

 [/X the pleasing tints 

 with which its 

 coat is decked. 

 The general color 

 of the Hackee is 

 a brownish gray 

 on the ])ack, 

 warming into orange-brown on the forehead and the hinder quarters. 

 Upon the back and sides are drawn five longitudinal black stripes 

 and two streaks of yellowish white, so that it is a most conspicuous 

 little creature, and by these peculiar stripes may easily be distin- 

 guished from any other animal. The abdomen and throat are white. 

 It is slightly variable in color according to the locality in which it 

 exists, and has been known to be so capricious of hue as to furnish 

 specimens of pure white and jet black. As a fur it is extremely elegant, 

 and if it were not quite so common would long since have taken nearly 

 as hiojh a rank as the sable or ermine. 



The Ground Squirrel or Hackee {Tdmias Lysteri). 



