SCIURUS ALPINUS. SCIURUS STRIATUS. 117 



Length of head and body, 9 inches ; head, 2 inches 1 

 line ; ears, 9| lines ; tail, without the hair, 6 inches 

 6 lines. 



Lives chiefly on trees, which it climbs with great agility. 

 Feeds on nuts, acorns, and young shoots ; sits erect, using 

 its fore-feet as hands. Produces three or four young at a 

 birth, in a nest made of moss, and placed in a fork or hollow 

 of a tree. 



Common over nearly the whole of Europe in suitable 

 situations. Is generally dispersed over England and Scot- 

 land, but is rare in Ireland. Is common in Prance, and 

 all over Eussia, except the Crimea, where it is not found 

 (Pallas). In northern climates, and sometimes so far 

 south as in France, it becomes more or less white in winter. 



Sciurus alpimis. 

 Sciurus alpinus, F. Ccviek ; Desm. Mamm. Sp. 846, Supplement. 



Description. — Fur dark brown, speckled with yellowish 

 white on the back ; lower parts pure white ; feet rufous ; 

 between the white on the neck and the brown on the back 

 is a rufous band ; the inside of the legs grey ; margin of 

 the lips white ; whiskers black ; the brown parts are 

 darker in summer than at other times, in winter they 

 become mixed with grey. 



First classed as a distinct species by F. Cuvier. 



Its habits are the same as those of the Common Squirrel. 



It is found in the Pyrenees and in the Alps (De Selys). 



Sciurus striatus. 



Sciurus striatus, Desm. Mamm. Sp. 547 ; Scheebek. 

 Tamia striata, Less. 

 Ground Squirrel. 



Description. — This Squirrel belongs to the subgenus Tamia, 

 which is characterized by possessing cheek-pouehes, and 



