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ORD KR R ODENTIA. 

 SQUIRRELS. 



The various portions of the globe, with the exception perhaps 

 of New Holland, possess one or more species of this extensive 

 genus. Many of these are extensively diffused, and, from the 

 operation of climate and other causes, are subject to deviate 

 into several varieties ; a circumstance which has greatly per- 

 plexed European naturalists in designating the species existing 

 in the warmer parts of the eastern continent. 



In all these animals, the head is large ; the eyes are prominent 

 and lively j the lower incisor teeth strongly compressed j the 

 grinders four in number, variously tuberculated, and, when very 

 young, have a small additional one above in front, which in 

 many of the species very soon drops out; but, according to Dr. 

 Bachman, in most of those of America it is either permanent, 

 or remains for more than a year. They have four toes on the 

 front feet, and five on the hind - } and the thumb of the fore- 

 foot is sometimes marked by a tubercle : all the toes are long, 

 slender, and deeply cleft, and the nails are very acute, and 

 greatly compressed. Their tails, which appear of vast assistance 

 in accelerating and regulating their movements, are profusely 

 furnished with hairs, which in most species are arranged on 

 the sides so as to resemble a large plume. 



It has been justly observed, that there are few animals of the 

 present order that can be compared with the squirrels for the 

 elegance of their form, the beauty of their fur, and the ease, 

 elasticity, and rapidity of their motions. Nestling among the 

 topmost branches of the trees, on which their lives are entirely 

 passed, climbing with extreme agility, and bounding from bough 

 to bough, or from tree to tree, with such velocity as almost to 



