August 14, 1888. 



William Yarrell, Esq., in the Chair. 



A series of skins, belonging to species of the genus Sclurus, in- 

 cluding, with one or two exceptions, all which are known to in- 

 habit North America, were upon the table; and the Rev. Dr. Bach- 

 man, of S. Carolina, brought them severally before the notice of the 

 Members. Six of the species exhibited were new, and for these he 

 proposed the specific names of Texianus, lanuginosus, fuliginosus, 

 snbauratus, Auduboni, and Richardsoni. Dr. Bachman's manuscript 

 notes upon the habits and characters of the North American Squir- 

 rels, with descriptions of the newly characterized species, were also 

 laid before the Meeting. 



The first species noticed by Dr. Bachman is the Sciurus capi- 

 slratus of Bosc, or Fox Squirrel ; Vulpinus of Gmel.; niger, Catesby; 

 variegatus, Desm. ; the Black Squirrel of Bartram. Its essential 

 characters consist in its large size, in having the tail longer than 

 the body, the hair coarse, and the ears and nose white. The dental 

 formula is inc. -, can. ^^, mol. ^^. In a very young individual, 

 supposed to have quitted the nest only a day or two, Dr. Bachman 

 found an additional anterior grinder on each side in the upper jaw, 

 but very minute. The additional molar teeth, he concludes, are 

 shed at a very early period, as they were not present in two other 

 specimens subsequently examined, and which were some days older 

 than the former one. The Fox Squirrel is the largest found in the 

 United States, and is subject to great differences of colour, but it 

 still exhibits such striking and uniform markings, that the species 

 may always be distinguished. Three principal varieties are noticed ; 

 in the first, which is the gray variety and the most common, the white 

 of the nose extends to within four or five lines of the eyes ; the ears, 

 feet, and belly, are white; forehead and cheeks, brownish black; the 

 hairs on the back are dark, plumbeous near the roots ; then a broad 

 line of cinereous ; theu black, tind broadly tipped with white, with an 

 occasional black hair interspersed, especially on the neck and fore- 

 shoulder, giving the animal a light gray appearance ; the hairs in the 

 tail are for three-fourths of their length white from the roots, then 

 a ring of black, with the tips white. This is the variety given by 

 Bosc and other authors as Sc. capistratus. 



The second variety (the Black Fox Squirrel) has the nose and ears 

 white, a few light-coloured hairs on the feet, the rest of the body 

 and tail black ; there are, occasionally, a few white hairs in the tail. 

 This is the original black squirrel of Catesby and Bartram, (Sc. 

 niger) . 



In the third variety, the nose, mouth, under-jaw, and ears, are 

 No. LXVIII, — Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



