414 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



recollection only, that it is rather smaller than the average gray 

 squirrel of the Eastern States. It likewise has a broadish chest- 

 nut band rather than a stripe, down its dorsal aspect, between 

 neck and root of tail. This latter coloration is but feebly marked 

 sometimes, when a glance at the animal leaves the impression 

 upon one's mind that it is of an ocherish color all over. 



Unlike Abert's, the Arizona squirrel is rather partial to the 

 crests and side-walls of the great canons of that country, and is 

 very much of a ground squirrel, rarely resorting to the trees when 

 surprised by the hunter. Indeed, in recalling my captures of 

 him, I fail to recollect an instance of ever having seen more than 

 one in a tree, while on the other hand, I have frequently shot 

 them as they skipped ahead of me on the ground, or clambered 

 up the canon-wall above me. My observations, too, incline me 

 to suspect that this squirrel always rears its young in a hole, 

 often dug in the side of a clay bank, or some similar locality; 

 whereas I suspect the nest of the Abert's squirrel is placed up 

 among the pine boughs, as is the habit of our gray one. In 

 fact I have observed nests in the pine trees here, which I have 

 taken to be the habitations constructed by Sciurus aberti, as they 

 were evidently the handiwork of some representative of that 

 genus of animals. 



