Our T^^o Forms of Red Squirrel. 



BY EDWARD J. BURNHAM. 



The typical red squirrel, Sciitrits h2idso7iicus Krxleben, is 

 about 14 inches in length, the tail being a little less than one- 

 half of the whole. It is yellowish graj^, with a median wash of 

 bright rust}' red along the back. The tail is marked b}- a nar- 

 row sub-terminal band of black. The under parts of the body 

 are white, vermiculated with black, the black being most dis- 

 tinct in late autumn and winter. 



While this is the typical Schcrus lutdsoniciis, abundant north- 

 ward, it is rare in southern New Hampshire. The red squirrel 

 which abounds along the shores of our rivers and lakes and in 

 the woods on the hillsides is somewhat larger than the northern 

 form ; its back is more rusty ; its sides are less olive ; it lacks 

 the black band near the the tip of the tail, and its under 

 parts are pure white. It was classed as a sub-species by 

 Bangs, the sub-specific designation, logjiax — Tatin for loqua- 

 cious — being sufficiently suggestive to an}^ one familiar with its 

 habits. 



Jordan states that the sub-species loquax extends north to 

 Maine and Minnesota, being common southward ; while ^. hud- 

 sonictis is found in mountains as far south as North Carolina, 

 and is common northward. Mr. George E. Burnham has se- 

 cured one specimen of the northern form on Joe English, in 

 New Boston (height iioo feet), and has observ^ed several indi- 

 viduals on the Uncanoonucs, in Goffstown (height 1300 feet). 

 They have been reported from McCoy's and Fort Mountains, in 



