93 



Dimensions of the Noithern Gray Squirrel. 



ill. lin. 



Length of head and body 11 9 



Tail (vertebrae) 10 



Tail to the tip .• 13 • 



Height of ear 7 



Height to the end of fur 9 



Palm to end of middle claw 110 



Heel to end of middle nail 2 6 



Length of fur on the back 7 



Breadth of tail with hairs extended . . 4 2 



As regards its geographical distribution, the northern limit of this 

 species is not determined ; it however exists as far as Hudson's Bay; 

 was formerly very common in the New England States, and in the 

 less cultivated portions is still frequently met with. It is abundant 

 in New York and the mountainous portions of Pennsylvania. Dr. 

 Bachman has observed it on the northern mountains of Virginia ; it 

 probably extends still further south : in the lower parts of North and 

 South Carolina, however, it is replaced by a smaller species. The 

 black variety is more abundant in Upper Canada, in the western part 

 of New York, and in the States of Ohio and Indiana. The Northern 

 Gray Squirrel does not exist in Georgia, Florida, or Alabama ; and 

 among specimens of Squirrels sent from Louisiana, stated to be all 

 the species existing in that State, he did not discover the present 

 species. 



In its habits Dr. Bachman describes the Sc. leucotis as one of the 

 most active species of Squirrel existing in the United States. It rises 

 with the sun, and continues industriously engaged in search of food 

 during four or five hours in the morning. In the middle of the day it 

 retires for a few hours to its nest, and then resumes its labours tiU 

 sunset. In the warm weather of spring and summer it builds a tem- 

 porary residence in the crutch of some tree, or in the fork of some 

 large branch. A pair of squirrels are emjiloyed on this nest, which 

 is formed of dry sticks and twigs, and lined with moss. In the winter 

 months these squirrels reside together in the hollows of trees.and there 

 the female brings forth her progeny. No instance has come under 

 Dr. Bachman's observation of their breeding in a state of domesti- 

 cation. 



During the rutting season the males engage in frequent contests, 

 and often wound each other severely. Tlie very current notion that 

 they emasculate one another in these encounters, is supposed by 

 Dr. Bachman to have originated in the circumstance of the testes 

 diminishing in bulk at a certain period of the year, or in these or- 

 gans being retracted within the pelvis. 



The food of the Northern Gray Squirrel is -like that of the species 

 in general, nuts, seed, and grain ; it gives, however, the preference 

 to the several kinds of hickory. Its fondness for the green com and 

 young wheat renders it very obnoxious to the farmer, and various 



