n 



SCIDRlUiB— SCIUltUS CAROL1NENSI8— SYNONYMY. 



709 



writers have, notwithstanding, npi)lied tho name cinereui to the present spe- 

 cies. According to Professor Baird, Ord, in 1815, gave the niuiie j>ennsiil- 

 vanicus to the black variety of the Gray Sqiiirn;!, though Godiinin* and suhse- 

 qiicnt authors have often applied to it the name niger, long previously given l)y 

 Linnaeus to the black phase of the Fox Squirrel. Gapper, in 1830, gave the 

 name leucotis to Canadian specimens of the common gray form. Tliis name 

 I adopt for the northern variety, from its being exclusively applicable to the 

 northern form. While pennmjlvanicus of Ord ha.^ fifteen years' priority over 

 this name, it was given to specimens from the Middle Atlantic States, and 

 hence from a locality bordering upon the habitat of the southern form, and con- 

 sequently the nam6 is not strictly applicable to the northern type us devel- 

 oped in the Northern and Northeiistern States and the Canadns. Audubon 

 and Bachman, not liking the name leucotia of Gapper, proposed, some twenty 

 years later, to substitute for it the name migratorius as being one far more 

 appropriate for the Northern Gray Squirrel. Dr. Bachman had previously 

 regarded the Northern and Southern Gray Squirrels as distinct species, 

 restricting the name carolmensis to the southern form. The name fuliginosus 

 of Bachman apparently refers to a dusky phase of the southern form, sup- 

 posed by him to be more or less common along the lower part of the Mis- 

 sissippi, especially in Louisiana. I have met thus far with no melanistic 

 specimens of the Gray Squirrel from any point south of Pennsylvania, nor 

 have I found any other reference to anything that can be considered as a 

 melanistic phase of the southern variety. The specimens from New Leon, 

 Mexico, referred very doubtfully by Professor Baird HI Sciurus carolinensis, 

 seem not to be varietally distinguishable from the southern form of this spe- 

 cies, and are hence here identified as referable to var. carolinensis. 



Tho Sciurus carolinensis of De Saussure from Mexico seems not to 

 differ materially from 8. caroliuensis of the United States. "Cauda corpore 

 vix brevior. Supra fuscus, flavo dense tessellatus; dorso medio obscuriore, 

 lateribus flavescentibus", etc., applies unequivocally to S. carolinensis, and to 

 no other species thus far known to me. Tomes gives it from Duefias, Guate- 



* Richantson (Faiiii.-Bor. Amer. i, 191) cites " Sciunu niger Say, Txid^s Expedition, vol. i, p. 262", 

 prribabl; from the English edition, wbioh is the one he elsewhere says he usually quotes. In the Amer- 

 ican edition, in the " Catalogue of the Names of Animals " met with at and on the journey to Engineer 

 Cantonment (vol. i, p. 37G), occurs " Scianu nigra— BXack Squirrel", but with no further remarks, and 

 hence nothing to indicate tho locality of its occurrence, or whether the " Black Sqnirrel " here referred to 

 is S. oarolinentit or a melanistic phase of one of the Fox Squirrels. In the same manner ore mentioned 

 " Sdnnu capittraim " and " .Scittnu oiRerma ". 



