THE GREAT-TAILED SQUIRREL. 311 



black j the fur is plumbeous, black at the base, then pale 

 cinnamon colour, then black, and finally cinereous, with a long 

 black tip ; the ears, three-quarters of an inch long, are, behind, 

 of a bright ferruginous colour, extending to the base of the 

 fur, which, in the winter dress, is prominent beyond the edge ; 

 on the inside of the ear the fur is of a dull ferruginous hue, 

 slightly tipped with black j the sides of the head and orbits of 

 the eyes are pale ferruginous ; beneath the ears and eyes the 

 cheeks are dusky 5 the whiskers are composed of about five 

 series of rather flattened hairs, the inferior ones are more dis- 

 tinct ; the mouth is margined with black , the teeth are reddish 

 yellow ; the under part of the head and neck, and the upper 

 part of the feet, are ferruginous -, the belly is paler, the fur 

 being plumbeous at the base ; the tail, which is even more 

 voluminous than that of the cat squirrel (S. cinereus, Linn.), is 

 of a bright ferruginous colour below, and this colour extends 

 to the base of the fur with a sub-marginal black line j on its 

 upper part it is ferruginous and black 5 the fur within is of a 

 pale cinnamon colour, with the base and three bands black -, 

 the tip is ferruginous ; the palms of the fore-feet are black, 

 and the rudimental thumb, which is very short, is covered by 

 a broad flat nail. In the winter the animal becomes fatter, 

 and acquires a longer fur, but its colour continues the same ; 

 and it is only at this season that the ears are fringed, which 

 is the necessary consequence of this periodical elongation of 

 the hair. 



" Its flesh was not an unfrequent article of food at our frugal 

 yet social meals at Engineer Cantonment j and we could always 

 immediately distinguish the bones from those of any other 

 animal by their remarkably red colour."* 



* Long's Narrative of an Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's 

 Lake Winnipeck, Lake of the Woods, &c., (1824), vol. i. p. 115. 



