HUDSON'S BAY SQUIRREL, CHICKAREE, ETC. 131 



ing on California, by another small species much resembling it, which we 

 hope, hereafter, to present to our readers. 



GENERAL REMARKS. 



Although this species from its numbers and familiarity, as well as from 

 its general diffusion, has been longer known than any other of our Squir- 

 rels, and has been very frequently described, it has, with few exceptions, 

 retained its name of Hiidsonius. Erxleben supposed it to be only a variety 

 of the common Squirrel, S. vulgaris, of Europe, and so described it. The 

 Sciurus Hudsonius of Gmelin is a flying Squirrel, {Pteromys sabrinus,) and 

 the Carolina Gray Squirrel, which in Shaw's General Zoology, vol. ii., 

 p. 141, is given as a variety of Sciurus Hudsonius, is our own species, 

 {Sc. Carolinensis.) This species was unknown to Linn^us. Pallas ap- 

 pears to have been the first author, who gave the specific name of Hud- 

 sonius, (see Pall. Glir.,p. 377, a. d. 1786,) and Gmelin, in 1788, adopted his 

 name. 



In examining the form, and inquiring into the habits of this species ; 

 we cannot but observe a slight approach to Tamias, and a more distant 

 one to SpERMoPHrLus. Its ears are placed farther back than in the Squir- 

 rels generally, its tail is only sub-distichous, and withal it often digs its 

 own burrow, and lives indiscriminately in the ground and on trees. In 

 all these particulars it appears, in connexion with the Downy Squirrel, 

 (Sc. lamiginosus,) to form a connecting link between Sciurus and Tamias. 

 It has, however, no cheek pouches, and does not carry its food in its 

 cheeks in the manner of the Tami^ and Spermophili, but between its 

 front teeth, like the rest of the squirrels. 



