llll 



M 



mm 



778 



MONOOKArUS OF NORTU AMERICAN RODENTIA. 



Sciurui^ carolinensis. If tlio specimen camo roally from North Americn, It is 

 far morn likely rc('oral)lf! to this s|)ocics than to any other. 



Ilamilton-Sniith's iloscripfion in lull is as follows : — "C/arfrr's Sguhrel 

 lias the hack, npper part of the iiead and neck, cheeks and tail, of n delicate 

 silver-gray colour ; the shoulders, flanks, belly, and posterior extremities, both 

 within and without, are white, with a slight ochery tint; on the sides of the 

 nose anil fore arms this tint deepens in intensity; the bend is rather flattened 

 and thick, the cars small and round; the eyes black, and situate on the sides 

 of the bend very far distant from each other, leaving a wide expanse of fore- 

 head ; the nostrils are semilunar in shape ; the upper lip is cleft, and there is 

 a black spot on the chin ; the tail, which is flat and spreading, is very beau- 

 tiful, not so full near its insertion as toward the middle, and again diminishing 

 in breadth till it terminates in a point." — {Griffith's Cuoiet's Animal King- 

 dom, vol. ii!; pp. 189, 190.) 



5. — ScicHUs 80CIALI8 Wagner. 



Sciuriu locialh Wagnkr, Abh. tier malh.-pbyit. KlaHXo ilnr K. Bayer. Akad. d, WiHttensch. ii, 1837, 504, pi. 

 V ; 8up;>l. Sobreber's Sanget. hi, 1843, 171. 



In 1837, Wagner described two species of Mexican Squirrels under the 

 names S. alhipes (subsequently changed to S. varius) and S. socialis, neither 

 of which I can satisfactorily determine. The first I have doubtfidly referred 

 to Sciurus boothite (see anted, p. 741), to some phases of which it seems to 

 have a close resemblance. The S. socialis, in its small size (length S.M) and 

 short tail (somewhat shorter than the head and body), differs from anytiiing 

 as yet known to me. It is perhaps based on an immature specimen, in which 

 case its small size would be readily accounted for. I have met with no 

 description of a species of this size from Mexico or Central America, except 

 S. iephrogaster and S. etstuans var. rufoniger, from which it differs widely in 

 coloration. Its short tail and small size suggest Sciurus carolinensis, but its 

 rusti/ -yellow lower surface and tail rusty-red below, bordered with black and 

 edged with white, render its proper reference here wholly improbable. Pos- 

 sibly it may have been described from an immature example of 5. aureigaster 

 (F. Gny. zzS. ferruginiventris Aud. and Bach.), to which I have been strongly 

 inclined to refer it. Its short tail is here the chief point of discrepancy. 



Wagner's later description is as follows: — 



"Sc. sociAua Wagn. Das gesellige Eickkorn. 

 " Sc. supra ex albo, cinereo et flavescente mixtus, subtus pallide flavus, 

 aurieulus fulvis, pedibiis a'niJis, vellere molli " .... 



