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MONOGEAPHS OF NORTH AMERICAN RODENTIA. 



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possible intermediate shades ; these varieties are sometimes more or less con- 

 stant in particular localities, sometimes changing with every litter. I am not 

 aware that there is any material difference of color at different seasons or ages 

 in the same animal. 



"Another source of perplexity to the naturalist is the alteration in over- 

 age size with the latitude. Many of our animals become smaller as we pro- 

 ccc'l southward, until, on the seacoast of Georgia, Florida, and the G ulf they 

 reach their minimum. This is very strikingly seen in the common Deer 

 [^Cariacus virgiriMnus], wiiich on the sea islands of Georgia is so sn)all as to 

 lie readily lifted and thrown across a horse with perfect ease by a man of 

 ordinary strength. It is in the Sciurida that, next to the Deer, we find tliis 

 law to prevail most' decidedly. Nearly all the species of extensive north and 

 south range will be found, on careful examination, to substantiate this position. 



"A similar variation in color to that of the Squirrels is seen in the Foxes 

 and Wolves, [*] most strikingly in the former. It is now well known that the 

 lied, Cross, and Black Foxes are identical in species, the same litter fre- 

 quently embracing all the colors, and t'.iat some of these varieties again are 

 more or less permanent, while the more boreal the locality the greater the 

 tendency to black. This is tiie case also with the Squirrels, where the smaller 

 species assume the black pelage to the greatest extent in the more northern 

 portions of the Unite.^. States. 



"As a general rule it may be stated that when a Squirrel exhibits any 

 annulations of the fur on the throat or belly it is a variety of some species, 

 typical specimens of which have the under parts either uniformly white »tr 

 reddish to the roots, which, however, are sometimes plumbeous. In every 

 such instance that has come under my examination! have had no difficulty in 

 tracing it to its proper type. Such annulation is usually accompanied by a 

 duskier color of the pelage. The tendency to annulation below is strongest 

 in the Squirrels of the Mississippi Valley, and applies both to gray and fox- 

 colored species. No such instances of annulation have yet come under my 

 notice among the Squirrels west of the Rooky Mountains. As a general 

 rule the bones of the entire skeleton of the lox Squirrels, or those with rusty 

 bellies, are red, while the white-bellied varieties have them white. 



"After carefully examining a large number of American Squirrels I 



* See also on this poiat Ball. U. 8. Oeol. >nd Qeogr. BnrTeys of the Territories, vol. ti, pp. 313-%il, 

 Jaly, 1676. 



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