44 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



taken in such an enterprise, not to introduce them into other 

 areas already occupied by races of Abert's squirrel, since hy- 

 bridization would inevitably tend to the loss of the distinctive 

 and conspicuous characters of this particular form. At the 

 present time the Kaibab squirrel is completely protected by 

 law and should be fairly well safeguarded, but any influences 

 that might tend to impair the growths of yellow pine to which 

 it is restricted would react unfavorably on its welfare in the 

 limited area in which it is found. 



BLACK MANGROVE SQUIRREL 



SCIURUS NIGER AVICENNIA A. H. Howell 



Sciurus niger avicennia A. H. Howell, Journ. Mammalogy, vol. 1, p. 37, Nov. 1919 

 ("Everglade, Lee County, Florida"). 



There are few less-inviting places for mammals than a man- 

 grove swamp. The clean trunks and branches offer little in the 

 way of food or shelter; the soft ooze from which the trees grow 

 is daily washed by the tides and thus is unsuitable for ground- 

 livers ; while the suckerlike stems and rooting tips form a tangle 

 almost impossible for the larger species to penetrate. It is 

 therefore the more remarkable that a depauperate form of the 

 southern fox squirrel has made the mangrove belt of the south- 

 west coast of Florida its home and become adapted to a life in 

 this apparently unfavorable environment. 



The mangrove squirrel is described as smaller and darker 

 (more tawny) both above and below than the typical race, 

 with the feet clearer white and less tinged with buff. The type 

 is in the so-called buff phase or at least is not of the entirely 

 black sort, with white face and ears. The head and back are 

 black sprinkled with cinnamon but more abundantly on lower 

 back; sides shading to orange-cinnamon; nose, lips, front of 

 face, and ears white; fore legs blackish washed with orange- 

 cinnamon, the feet and toes white; hind legs with more orange- 

 cinnamon than black, the feet edged with white. Tail orange- 

 cinnamon above, mixed with black, and shading on the sides 

 to hazel; under side rich tawny, with a submarginal band of 

 black. Under parts dull orange-cinnamon washed on throat 

 and breast with black and white. A black phase also occurs, 

 in which the nose, ears, paws and sometimes the end of the 

 tail are white, while elsewhere the pelage is deep shining black, 



