168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



numbers, seems to depend upon two causes, the supply of food and the 

 severity of the winters. Their great multiplication generally follows a 

 mild winter, which was preceded by a productive summer. I believe it 

 to be generally true that when one species becomes very plentiful, the 

 others become so too." There seems to be a considerable confusion 

 regarding the identity of this species, some hunters declaring that they 

 have shot two distinct species, and others three, in this State ; but after 

 examining carefully a great number that were shot in this State, and 

 shot them myself, in different localities, I am confident that there exists 

 with us only one species, although there are some which may be justly 

 called varieties ; indeed, Prof. Spencer F. Baird,* in his valuable 

 " Report on the Mammals," pronounces the black squirrel Sciurus niger 

 (Godman) that is sometimes found in this State, to be a variety of this 

 species, and I have no doubt that such is the case, more especially as he 

 had before him a sex'ies of specimens, showing very clearly the 

 transition from black to the unquestionable gray. I have seen some 

 specimens very dark, almost brown, that I knew were of this species 

 and having such high authority, I shall not make two distinct species, 

 but include them in S. caroUnensis. 



Description. — Head moderately large ; ears rounded, covered pos- 

 teriorly with short thin hairs ; eyes large ; whiskers long, the longest 

 more than two and a-half inches, black ; body strong, but well propor- 

 tioned ; limbs strong ; feet naked beneath ; toes provided with sharp, strong, 

 curved claws ; tail longer than the body ; color above and on each side 

 of the head, neck, body, and outside of the legs to the claws, a grizzled 

 gray, caused by the fur which is cinereous next the skin, being tipped 

 with black, white and ash ; on the sides there is a wash of light ash, and 

 on the legs and feet ; on the back the fur is tipped with black, and a 

 larger proportion of brownish ash than elsewhere on the body ; beneath 

 the whole body and between the limbs, white ; the hairs on the tail are 

 placed more on its sides than on the top or bottom, making it much 

 wider than thick, they are ash-colored at their base, and for two-thirds 

 their length black, and tipped broadly with white; the upper side 

 of the tail is the darkest. The variations from this description ai'e 

 great and common, no two animals being alike. I have before me a 

 specimen, brownish beneath, and on the head and between the legs ; and 

 have seen specimens varying from brown above, to the above description. 

 There is also in the State Cabinet, a specimen entirely pure white, 

 (this is probably an albino.) 



DIMENSIONS. 



Length of head, 2| to 2| inches. 

 Greatest width of head, 1 ^ to If inches. 



* Pacific Railroad Survey, Vol. VIII. 



