MAMMALS. 



281 



Biographical notes. — Everywhere on the Ahiskau iiiaiulaud, uorth of the main range of the 

 Alaskan mountains, and whei'o spruce or other trees are found, this pretty squirrel abounds. It 

 reaches the shore of Bering Sea at the head of Norton Sound and is found near Beiing Straits 

 on the Kaviak Peninsuhi. It approaches the Arctic coast near the head of Kotzebue Sound, and 

 in the interior extends its range north to the extreme limit of the forest in about latitude 69°. 



Specimen.s were brought me from the headwaters of the Yukon and from various i>oints along 

 its course to the delta. They are very common about Nulato, and also upon the headwaters of 

 the Kuskoquim. From Andraevsky up to Auvik,on the Lower Yukon, I found them common every- 

 where, and their tracks, leading from tree to tree, were found wJierever I went, while the snow was 

 frequently covered with scattered chips and scales from cones which tliey had rattled down from 

 their perches. Skins from this region vary but little from those taken in Xew England or other 

 parts of its range far to the south. 



Their habits are the same everywhere. The most intense cold of the northern winter does 

 not keep them in their nests more than a day or two at a time. 



SciURUS HUDSONius RiCHARDSONi (Bachman). Eichardsoa's Chickaree (Esk. KV- 



(JU-",l). 



List of specimens. 



Biographical notes. — Beyond the fact that my collection contains two specimens of this form 

 from Nulato, on the Lower Yukon, I know nothing of the distribution of this squirrel in Northern 

 Alaska. 



Spermophiltjs empetra empetra (Pallas). Parry's Spermophile (Esk. CM'gW). 



In addition to several skins of the normal coloration, a melauistic individual was obtained at 

 Fort Yukon in the summer of 1877. The under parts in this specimen are black throughout. 

 The central line of the back is also black, but the shoulders, the sides of the neck, and the tail 

 are gray, owing to the admixture of hairs having a snbterminal bar of white. 



List of S2>ecimcns. 



*Melani3tic. 



Biographical notes. — From the peninsula of Aliaska and U nimak, the easternmost of the Aleutian 

 Islands, north along the coast of Bering Sea and the Arctic Ocean to Point Barrow, and occui^ying 

 a belt extending back from the coast, this little animal is irregularly abundant. Its distribution 

 over this area is very unequal, and while it may cover all of the hill-sides in one district, not a 

 single individual can be found in another place which is apparently just as well suited to their 

 wants. Usually it is plentiful wherever found, but the coast-line about the northern shore of 

 Norton Sound and Bering Straits is particularly favored by them. 



Their handsomely-mottled gray and bnfify-brown skins are much prized by the Eskimo and 

 Indians for making light summer coats, and as a consequence the marmots are hunted by them in 



