66 CHIPPING SQUIRREL. 



SciuRUS Stbiatds, Harlan, Fauna, p. 183. 



" " Godman, Nat. Hist., vol. ii., p. 142. 



SciuRus (Tamias) Ltstebi, Rich., F. B. A., p. 181, plate 15. 



II ii " Doughty's Cabinet Nat. Hist., vol. i., p. 169, pi. 15. 



SciuBus Stbiaths, DeKay, Nat. Hist, of N. Y., part 1, p. 62, pi. 16, fig. 1. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Body, rather slender ; forehead, arched ; head, tapering from the 

 ears to the nose, which is covered with short hairs ; nostrils, opening 

 downwards, margins and septum naked ; whiskers, shorter than the head. 

 A few bristles on the cheeks and above the eye-brows ; eyes, of moderate 

 size ; ears, ovate, rounded, erect, covered with short hair on both sur- 

 faces, not tufted, the hair on those parts simply covering the margins. 

 Cheek-pouches, of tolerable size, extending on the sides of the neck to a 

 little below the ear, opening into the mouth between the incisors and mo- 

 lars. Fore-feet, with four slender, compressed, slightly-curved, claws, 

 and the rudiment of a thumb, covered with a short, blunt, nail ; hind-feet, 

 long and slender, with five toes, the middle toe being a little the longest. 

 Tail, rather short and slender, nearly cylindrical above, dilated on the 

 sides, not bushy, sub-distichous. Hair on the ^yhole body short and 

 smooth, but not very fine. 



A small black spot above the nose ; forehead, yellovwsh-brown ; above 

 and beneath the eye-lids, white ; whiskers and eye-lashes, black ; a dark 

 brown streak running from the sides of the face, through the eye, and 

 reaching the ear ; a yellowish-brown stripe extending from near the nose, 

 running under the eye to behind the ear, deepening into chesnut-brown 

 immediately below the eye, where the stripe is considerably dilated. 



Anterior portion of the back, hoary gray, this colour being formed by a 

 mixture of gray and black hairs. Colour of the rump, extending to a little 

 beyond the root of the tail, hips, and exterior surface of the thighs, red- 

 dish fawn, a few black hairs sprinkled among the rest, not sufiiciently 

 numerous to give a darker shade to those parts. A dark dorsal line com- 

 mencing back of the head is dilated on the middle of the back, and runs 

 to a point within an inch of the root of the tail ; this line is brownish on 

 the shoulder, but deepens into black in its progress dovmwards. 



On each flank there is a broad yellowish- white line, running from the 

 shoulder to the thighs, bordered on each side with black. The species 

 may be characterised by its having five black and two white stripes on a 

 gray ground. The flanks, sides, and upper surface of feet and ears, are 



