S01UKIDJ3— TAMIAS ASIATICUS AND VAHIKTIES. 



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that on the east of those mounlains (T*. quadrivittatui) as to suggest a (h)ul)t 

 of their (listinclness, and at least a suspicion of a liyhrid race.'' 



Synonymy and nomenclature. — As already shown (see anted., under 

 Tatnias stria(us), the Old World form of Tamias was formerly confounded 

 with the species of Eastern North America under the name Tamias striatus, 

 which is still by many writers retained for the Old World type, though orig- 

 inally based exclusively upon the Striped Ground Squirrel of Eastern North 

 America. The use of the name striatus, in this restricted sense, by Linnseus, 

 in the tenth edition of the Systema Naturae, renders it unequivocally pertinent 

 to the latter species, and to that alone. The name striatus was first applied to 

 the Siberian animal by Pallas twenty years after the publication of this edition 

 of Linnaeus's work, Pallas supposing it identical with the striatus of Linnaeus. 

 The first name distinctively applied to the Europco-Asiatic form was asiati- 

 cus, given by Gmclin, in a varietal sense, in 1788, who properly discrimi- 

 nated the two forms, and correctly assigned their habitats and their synonymy. 

 Professor Baird, apparently overlooking this fact, supposed, as late as 1857, 

 that the Old World Tamias was without a name, and bestowed upon it that 

 of pallasi. The only objection to asiaticus is its unfortunate geographical 

 significance, since the Old World forms prove to be specifically the same as 

 several of the forms of Tamias of Western North America, subsequently 

 named quruirivittatus, totonsendi, dorsalis, f tc. Rigid adherence to the rule of 

 priority renders it necessary to adopt asiaticus as the specific designation also 

 of the American forms of this group, which will stand as above, namely, 

 Tamias asiaticus vars. quadrivittatus, toicnsendi, etc. 



The Sciurus uthensis Pallas, known only from Pallas's description, is 

 commonly believed to have been based on a melanistic example of the com- 

 mon form. The species was originally described by Pallas, in 1831, from 

 skins brought from the river Uth. The examples were wholly black, with 

 ^ve white dorsal stripes and a wliite streak on the throat and breast* 

 Middeudortr, von Schrenck, and other explorers have since diligently searched 

 the same general region without meeting with other examples, and incline to 

 the opinion that it is merely a melanistic form of the common species. The 



* Pallas states, in bis diaf{<i<>sis, " S. anriculis imberbig, corpora atro striKis ilorsnlibas qainis albis ". 

 It is further described as smaller tban Soiunu atriatua, with smaller ears and relatively shorter tail, but 

 with the dorsal stri,ies similar ("strif^ie dorsi item similes"), nud with a longitudinal band of white oa 

 the throat, extending from the lower lip to tUo breast. 



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