94 



inducements are consequently held out for their destruction. In 

 Pennsylvania an ancient law existed, offering three pence a head for 

 every one destroyed ; and in this way, in the year 1 749, the sum 

 of eight thousand pounds was paid out of the treasury in pre- 

 miums. 



It is this species of Squirrel which occasionally migrates in such 

 vast bodies, but instances of this nature are of much rarer occurrence 

 now than formerly. Autumn is the season of the year at which the 

 migration takes place, and they instinctively direct their course in an 

 eastward direction. Dr. Bachman states that he once witnessed a 

 body of them in the act of migrating, and saw them cross the Hud- 

 son in various places between Waterford and Saratoga. They swam 

 deep and awkwardly, with the body and tail entirely submerged. 

 Many were drowned in the passage, and those which reached the 

 opposite bank were so exhausted, that the boy stationed there had 

 no difficulty in killing them or taking them alive. 



Sciurus Carolinensis, Gmel. Little Carolina Gray Squirrel. 



This species is smaller than the Northern Gray Squirrel, and has 

 the tail, which is the same length as its body, narrower than in that 

 species. The colour above is rusty gray, beneath white, and not 

 subject to variation. 



The head is shorter, and the space between the ears proportion- 

 ally broader than those of the Northern Gray Squirrel ; the nose 

 also is sharper; the small anterior molar in the upper jaw is per- 

 manent, being invariably found in all the specimens examined 

 by Dr. Bachman ; and is considerably larger than in the other spe- 

 cies. All his specimens, which give evidence of the animals having 

 been more than a year old, instead of having the small thread- 

 like single tooth as in the northern species, have a distinct double 

 tooth with a double crown ; the other molars are not unlike those 

 of the other species in form, but are shorter and smaller ; the upper 

 incisors are nearly a third shorter. The body is shorter, less ele- 

 gant in shape, and has not the appearance of sprightliness and agility 

 for which the other species is so eminently distinguished. The ears, 

 which are nearly triangular in shape, are- so slightly clothed with 

 hair internally, that they may be said to be nearly naked ; externally, 

 they are sparely clothed with short woolly hair, which does not, how- 

 ever, extend beyond the margins, as in the other species ; the nails 

 are shorter and less hooked; the tail is shorter, and does not pre- 

 sent the broad distichous appearance of the other. Teeth light 

 orange colour ; nails brown, lighter at the extremities ; whiskers 

 black ; nose, cheeks, and around the eyes, with a slight tinge of rufous 

 gray. The fur on the back is for three-fourths of its length dark 

 plumbeous, then a slight marking of black, edged with brown in 

 some hairs, and black in others, giving it on the whole upper sur- 

 face an uniform dark ochreous colour. In a few specimens there is 

 an obscure line of lighter brown along the sides, where the ochre- 

 ous colour prevails, and a tinge of the same colour on the upper 



