ORDER RODENTIA. 177 



break in the general harmony of nature, it usually turns 

 out that our assumption arises from imperfect observation . 

 It is therefore much safer to suspect anomalies than to 

 attempt any explauation of them by hypotheses, however 

 ingenious or probable. 



Upon reasoning of this nature, and upon the actual differ- 

 ences to be observed between the two, M. F. Cuvier pro- 

 ceeds to treat the Alpine Squirrel, which he names the 

 Squirrel of the Pyrenees, S. Alpinus, and which is found 

 equally on the Alps and Pyrenees, as a distinct species from 

 the common Squirrel. 



Its colour is a very deep brown, sprinkled with yellowish 

 on the upper part of the body, and pure white underneath, 

 insides of the limbs gray, sides of the mouth bright yellow, 

 and the edge of the lips white; the feet are yellow, and a 

 yellow band separates the white of the neck and chest from 

 the gray part of the limbs. The tail, viewed sideways, 

 seems quite black, the latter part of each hair being black, 

 but toward the root annulated black and yellowish. In its 

 proportions and size, this species resembles the common, ex- 

 cept that the head is rather less. 



The Gray, or Carolina Squirrel, (S. Cinereus, Lin.) is 

 father larger than the common species. It seems, as 

 M. F. Cuvier has observed from a number of specimens, to 

 present no fixed character as to colour, except within cer- 

 tain limits some whitish-gray, others with a mixture of 

 yellow, fyc. Indeed no species, perhaps, occurs more sub- 

 ject to differ in this respect, particularly when, like that in 

 question, it is not extensively located. We have no doubt 

 that such-like differences, which in this instance have been 

 so observed upon by M. Cuvier, are, in very many other 

 cases, neither more nor less than what constitute the specific 

 separation of many enumerated in zoological catalogues ; 

 nor do we, for an instant, exclude our monograph from 

 the application of this observation. To cleanse this stable 



