282 



BULLETIN 56, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



-*siir 



Fig. 45.— ScinEDS eufiven- 



TER TEXTANUS. DORSAL 

 VIEW OF SKULL. FOKT 



Clark, Texas. (Cat. No. 

 12710, Amer. Mus. Nat. 

 Hist.) 



ears, feet, inner surface of limbs, and all of under surface of body 

 orange-buff. Tail grizzled above, in the median area, with broad, 

 lateral, subterminal bands of black and broad 

 yellowish Avliite tips to the hairs ; under side of 

 tail tricolored, orange-buff mesially, this bor- 

 dered successively by black and yellowish white. 

 The naked under surfaces of the feet are pur- 

 plish black. Length, 475 mm.; tail to end of 

 ^-ertebrse, 225 ; tail to' end of hairs, 300 ; ear from 

 crown, 18; ear from notch, 30; head, 67; hind 

 foot, 66. 



Cranial characters. — This species has but one 

 premolar on each side, above. Skull in texianus 

 (fig. 45) low, with a weak rostrum; superior 

 profile flattened in the frontal region, sharply 

 declining posteriorly; postorbital processes of 

 medium length and sharply deflected; audital 

 bullae, small; incisive foramen, long and nar- 

 row ; interpterygoid fossa, long, nearly equal- 

 ing the length of the upper lateral tooth-row. 

 Greatest length of skull, 61 mm.; greatest breadth, 35. 



Remarks. — The color of the under surface fades with wear and 

 exposure until it becomes nearly white, and 

 its intensity is also subject to some individ- 

 ual variation. On the whole, the form is re- 

 markably uniform. No black individuals 

 were seen or heard of, though the fox squir- 

 rel of northeastern Texas is frequently mel- 

 anistic. Dr. J. A. Allen" mentions a speci- 

 men from Rockport, Aransas County, Texas, 

 " not appreciably different from speci- 

 mens from the type locality (San Pedro or 

 Devils River) of Baird's Sciurus limitis 

 (^texianus) , recently received from Dr. E. A. 

 Mearns." 



An adult female (Cat. No. 63048, U.S.N.M.) 

 from Kickapoo Springs, Mason ^County, 

 Texas, has five pairs of mammae. 



Habits and local distrihntion. — On January 

 31, 1892, I noted a fine fox squirrel, seen in a 

 bit of woods along the railroad between the 

 southern border of Indian Territory and Fort Worth, Texas. I 

 afterwards found it abundant in pecan woods along most of the 



Fig. 46.— Sciueus rufiventer. 

 Dorsal view of skull. 

 West Northpield, Illinois. 

 (Cat. No. 1879, tJ.S.N.M.) 



oBull. Am. Mus. Nat Ilist, VI, 1894, p. 183. 



