898 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 308. 



nandez's description : " The second is called 

 QuauhtecallotlquapaehtU or CoztiocotequalUn 

 from the yellow color of the belly ; it grows 

 nearly twice the size ;* in color is white, 

 black and brown mixed, except the belly, 

 which is pale or fulvous ; it has a very long 

 and hairy tail, with which it sometimes 

 covers itself. It lives in holes in the ground 

 and in enclosed hollows, in which it also 

 rears its young. It feeds on Indian coi'n, 

 which, taken from the fields, it stores up for 

 winter. It is agile like the others, never 

 becomes tame or lays aside its natural wild- 

 ness." 



The vague ideas prevailing among writers 

 regarding the animal described by Fer- 

 nandez and Erxleben is evident when it is 

 known that at least twelve well-marked 

 species and sub-species of American squir- 

 rels have been referred to it. These squir- 

 rels represent species having distinct 

 ranges, lying between the Carolinas in the 

 United States and Honduras in Central 

 America. Since the species was named by 

 Erxleben it has been uniformly treated by 

 authors as a true Sclurus. Now let us see 

 what foundation there is for treating this 

 species as a true squirrel. Erxleben places 

 it under h\s Sciurus, but, as he covers in this 

 genus several genera now considered dis- 

 tinct, this furnishes no guarantee of its 

 actual generic position. It is true that he 

 quotes as a synonym the CoquaUin of Buffon, 

 but this merely shows that, in naming 

 the animal of Fernandez, Erxleben had no 

 very definite idea of it. Erxleben's de- 

 scription, evidently quoted from Fernandez, 

 is as follows : " Magnitudine dupla S. vul- 

 garis. Auriculse imberbes. Corpus supra 

 nigro, albo et fusco variegatum, ventre 

 flavescente. Cauda supra corpus reflexa." 

 This description might easily refer to a 

 Seiurus, but whsn the author adds the fol- 



* The context shows that this must refer to the 

 author's Teohallotl, which is SpennophUus mexicanus 

 (Licht.). 



lowing notes, viz., " Habitat in Mexico. 

 Subterraneus parit, cibumque colligit pro 

 hieme. Edit Zeam. Non mansuescit." it 

 is evident that he is describing a Sper- 

 mophilus. 



I think it m ay be positively stated that no 

 Mexican Sciurush.SiS the habits of the animal 

 described by Fernandez. The Spermophilus 

 maerourus of Bennett and later authors is 

 an abundant resident throughout the part 

 of the tableland familiar to Fernandez. It 

 is conspicuous about farms, and agrees in 

 habits and colors with the animal described 

 by Fernandez and quoted by Erxleben, and 

 again described by Lichtenstein as Sciurus 

 buccatus (Abh. k. Akad. Wiss., Berlin, pp. 

 115, 117 (1827), 1830). This being the 

 case, it is difficult to see how there can be 

 any reasonable doubt that the Quaiihtecal- 

 Intlquapachtli of Fernandez, the Sciurus varie- 

 jjaiMs of Erxleben, Sciurus buccatus of Lichten- 

 stein and Spermophikis maerourus of Bennett 

 are one and the same animal. Consequently 

 the large, bushj'-tailed Spermophilus of the 

 Mexican tableland becomes Spermophilus 

 variegatus (Erxleben) and stands as the type 

 of the group to which belong S. couchi and S. 

 grammurus, which are probably races of this 

 species. It was probably about the border 

 of the Valley of Mexico, near the City of 

 Mexico, that Fernandez became familiar 

 with this animal, and we may, therefore, 

 consider this as the type locality. 



Note : Spermophilus mexicanus (Lichten- 

 stein) is the only other common and widely 

 spread species of Spermojjhilus on the south- 

 ern end of the Mexican tableland and it is 

 readily recognizable as the Techallotl of Fer- 

 nandez. 



E. W. Nelson. 



NOTES ON PHYSICS. 

 transformer design. 

 A PAPER by F. W. Carter read before the 

 November meeting of the American Insti- 

 tute of Electrical Engineers gives, for the 



