262 TI-mOUGH THE MACKENZIE BASIN 



an impression that I saw a flying-squirrel north of Fort 

 Simpson, and several elsewhere in other soiithern tracts of 

 territory. Some specimens were collected at Fort Liard by 

 ilr. Hardisty, at Big Island by Messrs. Boss and Eeid, at 

 Besolution by Mr. Lockhart, and one also labelled " Arctic 

 America" by Mr. Kennicott many years ago. In 1893 Dr. 

 Frank Russell, of the Iowa State University, secured one 

 specimen at Grand Rapids, Saskatchewan, where he says 

 they are very rare. The brothers Preble, of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, have also recently obtained 

 some skins at Oxford House and Norwaj^ House, Keewatin. 

 Mr. iloberly writes that the flying-squirrel of the Rockies 

 must be S. alpinus, as it is not found in the country to the 

 east. Mr. Pierre Deschambeault writes that the flying- 

 sqiiirrel is not uncommon at Isle a la Crosse and Lac du 

 Brochet. 



Red Squirrel — Sciui'us hudsonicus (Erxleben). 



This species is undoubtedly the most generality distributed 

 of the squirrel family, and it is more or less common through- 

 out the entire timbered region of northern continental Can- 

 ada. It is also numerous in Alaska, while specimens have 

 been sent to Washington from nearly every Hudson's Bay 

 post in the Mackenzie River District. It makes its nest in 

 a tree, and has usually, once a year, from four to six, and 

 occasionally as many as seven, young. I obtained an albino 

 example which must have been forwarded to the Smithsonian 

 Institution. Mr. Moberly writes : 



This squirrel is common at every place I have been since I 

 came to the company's service in 1854 — on the North Saskatchewan, 

 Peace and Athabasca rivers, and at Fraser Lake, British Columbia. 

 There is another ground squirrel, smaller than the red, and more 

 brownish in colour, and lives high up on the mountains, chiefly 

 beyond the tree limit. It has a peculiar call, more like a whistle 

 than a chatter. In British Columbia there are three species of 

 squirrels not found east of the Rockies. One has the head broader 



