THE BRITISH OR LIGHT-TAILED SQUIRREL 701 



latter is borne until the autumn, when it is changed for the normal first 

 adult winter pelage, the moment of change, however, being frequently 

 later than in adults. The nestling pelage of Collett may perhaps be 

 compared with that described by Blyth and others, noticed above, but 

 it is to be hoped that some favourably situated observer will give 

 further information concerning the first pelage of 5. leucourus ; at 

 present we have little material bearing upon this matter.^ 



Variation: — Thomas's Dorset series may be regarded as typical. 

 Squirrels from colder parts of the country are greyer in winter, with a 

 darker, browner central dorsal line, and in summer redder flanks. An 

 extreme example of this type was taken near Bury St Edmunds, 

 Suffolk, in very cold weather on the 2nd February. 



5. leucourus, being confined to Britain, has no definite geographical 

 variation, such as is exhibited in a very beautiful manner by its closely 

 allied representative, S. vulgaris, on the continent of Europe. 



Exceptional variation runs mainly towards albinism ; melanism, 

 although extremely common in some of the sub-species of 5'. vulgaris, 

 being almost unknown. Of the latter variation, records of only three 

 instances, and no detailed descriptions, are available (see Pryor, 

 Zoologist, \%6t„ gif-^i ; Denham, i^/^/^Z, 24th April 1909, 721). Records 

 of albinos will be found as follows : — (i) male, pink-eyed, Dack, 

 Field, 5th December 1885, 785 ; (2) large white saddle on back, feet, 

 nose, and three parts of tail white, pink-eyed, Dack, Field, 3rd 

 November 1888, 653; (3) Laws, Field, 14th December 1889, 862; 

 (4) female, pink-eyed, Matthews, Zoologist, 1892, 20; (5) Rushen, 

 Field, 24th June 1893, 944; (6) male, pink-eyed, Marsden, Zoologist, 

 1893, 426 ; (7) female, pink-eyed, Auct. et Journ. cit., 457 ; (8) pink- 

 eyed, Grabham, Zoologist, 1899, 132; (9) pink-eyed, Monckton, 

 Field, 28th January 1905, 152; (10) one, white (figured), Brown, 

 Field, 8th January 1910, 74.^ A white Squirrel was killed near 



' W. Evans (Supplement, Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edinburgh, 16, igo6, 398, and in lit. 

 to Barrett-Hamilton) has described young, three to ten days old, from two nests in the 

 Edinburgh district. In one case, examined 21st April 1904, the three still blind 

 nestlings " seemed to be rather less than 3I inches in length, exclusive of tail, which 

 might be fully i\ inches, and showed no tendency to curl upwards over the back. 

 They were covered on the upper surface with very short silky hair of a rich chestnut 

 or rufous colour ; skin on upper parts of legs and about the eyes bluish ; under 

 surface yellowish-white ; tail straight and clothed with short blackish hairs." The 

 other nest, found 4th May 1904, contained "three young ones, naked and blind and 

 not more than three or four days old." Evans figures one of these babies, which he 

 sent to Barrett- Hamilton ; he says : " Its length was 75 mm. excluding the tail, 

 which measured 40 mm. ; colour, dark bluish-grey." 



^ Cocks put "three young squirrels to a domestic cat, and eventually sent them 

 to the Zoo, where one soon died, but the other two were reared. These turned 

 white, but whether because they were albinos, or in consequence of the influence 

 of the cat's milk, or the absence of sunlight from the keeper's room in the small 

 mammal house at the Zoo, cannot be said." 



VOL, 11. 2 Y 2 



