RICHARDSON'S COLUMBIAN SQUIRREL. 43 



tains, Aug. 12, 1834. From Mr. Townsend's account, it exists on the 

 mountains a little west of the highest ridge. It wll be found no doubt 

 to have an extensive range along those elevated regions. 



In the Russian possessions to the Northward, it is replaced by the 

 Do^vny Squirrel (Sc. latiuginosus.) and in the South, near the Californian 

 Mountains, within the Territories of the United States, by another 

 small species which we hope to present to our readers hereafter. 



GENERAL REMASES. 



The first account we have of this species is from Lewis and Clarke, 

 who deposited a specLmen in the Philadelphia Museum, where it still 

 exists. We have compared this specimen with that brought by Mr. 

 TowNSEND, and find them identical. The description by Lewis and Clarke 

 (vol. iii., p. 37) is very creditable to the close obser^-ation and accuracy 

 of those early explorers of the untrodden snows of the Rocky Mountains 

 and the valleys bejond, to Oregon. 



" The small bro\\Ti Squirrel," they say, " is a beautiful little animal, 

 about the size and form of the red squirrel {Sc. Hudsonius) of the Atlantic 

 .States, and Western lakes. The tail is as long as the body and neck, and 

 formed like that of the red squirrel ; the eyes are black ; the whiskers 

 long and black, but not abundant ; the back, sides, head, neck, and outer 

 parts of the legs, are of a reddish brown ; the throat, breast, belly, and 

 inner parts of the legs, are of a pale red ; the tail is a mixture of black 

 and fox- coloured red, in which the black predominates in the middle, and 

 the red on the edges and extremity. The hair of the body is almost half 

 an inch long, and so fine and soft that it has the appearance of fur. The 

 hair of the tail is coarser and double in length. This animal subsists 

 chiefly on the seeds of various species of pine and is always found in the 

 pine country." 



Dr. Richardson, who had not seen a specimen, copied in his excellent 

 ■work, {Fauna Boreali Americana, p. 19,) the description of Lewis and 

 Clarke, from which he supposed this species to be a mere variety of the 

 Sc. Hudsonius. We had subsequently an opportunity of submitting a 

 specimen to his inspection, when he immediately became convinced it 

 was a different species. 



The difference between these two species can indeed be detected at a 

 glance by comparing specimens of each together. The present species, 

 in addition to its being a fourth smaller, — about the size of our little 

 chipping squirrel {Tamias Lysteri) — has less of the reddish bro^vn on the 

 upper surface, and may always be distinguished from the other by the 

 blaclaiess of its tail at the extremity. 



