THE AMERICAN BLACK SQUIRREL. 



if they are not a distinct species, but merely a variety, they 

 have become by time and succession a permanent race. 



Dr. Bachman, who procured specimens from the counties 

 of Renssellaer and Queen's, New York, says he has seen it 

 on the borders of Lake Champlain, at Ogdensburgh, and on 

 the eastern shores of Lake Erie ; also near Niagara, on the 

 Canada side. The specimen, described in Dr. Richardson's 

 Fauna Boreali- Americana (p. 192), was obtained at Fort William, 

 on Lake Superior. 



The black squirrel is larger than the preceding species, being 

 thirteen inches in length from the extremity of the head to 

 that of the body, or, including the full extent of the tail, two 

 feet two inches. Dr. Godman says, the black squirrel has only 

 twenty teeth ;* and Dr. Bachman found no more in the speci- 

 mens he has described under the present name, except in one 

 instance, where the animal was evidently only a few months 

 old, and had an additional tooth on one side, so small that 

 it appeared like a white thread, the opposite and corresponding 

 one having already been shed. If it should ever be established 

 that this additional molar is deciduous in the black squirrel, 

 and persistent in the northern grey squirrel (S. leucotis), there 

 will be no doubt of their being distinct species. Its head 

 appears to be a little shorter and more arched than that of 

 the grey squirrel, although it is often found that these differences 

 exist among different individuals of the same species. The 

 incisor teeth are compressed, strong, and of a deep orange 

 colour anteriorly j the ears are elliptical, and slightly rounded 

 at the tip, thickly clothed with fur on both surfaces, that on 

 the outer surface in winter, extending beyond the margin ; the 

 whiskers a little longer than the head 5 the tail long, distichous, 

 and thickly clothed with rather coarse hair. The fur of the 

 body is softer to the touch than that of the northern grey 

 squirrel j the whole of the upper arid lower surface as well as 

 the tail are bright glossy black ; at the roots the hairs are a 

 little lighter. The summer specimens do not materially differ 



* American Natural History (Philadelphia, 1826), vol. ii. p. 133. 



