MAMMALIA. 185 
French Canadians, an appellation which, according to Father Theodat, arose 
from their skins being rayed with black, white, red and gray, like the breeches 
of the Switzers who formed the Pope’s guard. The same author informs us that 
they bite bitterly when taken. . 
DESCRIPTION. 
Dental formula, incisors 2, canines 3, grinders =3, = 22. _ 
Incisors much compressed, like those of the squirrels. The upper ones are short, and 
their even cutting edges have an inclination backwards. Their anterior surfaces are of a deep 
yellow colour, flatly convex, and under the microscope they appear to be marked with 
longitudinal grooves. They are narrower behind. ‘The anterior grinder of the upper jaw has 
a round crown, and is very much smaller than the others, which resemble those of the 
Sciurus Hudsonius. The inferior grinders are intermediate in form between the correspond- 
ing teeth of the squirrels and those of the spermophiles, their areas not being so much 
hollowed as in the former, nor presenting points so high as in the latter. The frontal bone 
is more arched between the orbits than in the Sciwrus Hudsonius, and its proportional 
breadth is not so great. The scull has an uniform slight curvature from the occiput to the 
end of the nose; the cavity for containing the brain is larger, the orbit is much smaller in 
proportion, and the zygomatic arch less projecting than in the Hudson’s Bay squirrel, or than 
in any of the spermophiles noticed in this work. 
Form.—The head is long, and tapers considerably from the eyes to the end of the nose, 
which is not, however, remarkably sharp. The mouth is situated far back. The whiskers 
are black and rather shorter than the head. The eye is small when compared with a 
squirrel’s. The ear is erect, semi-ovate, obtuse and flat, except a slight duplicature at the 
base of the anterior margin; it is covered on both sides with a coat of short hair. The 
cheek-pouches extend to the angle of the jaw. The body has a more slender form than that 
of the squirrels in general. 
Colour of the head.— A narrow black line runs from the nostrils to the anterior part of the 
orbit, and is continued from behind the orbit to near the ear. The cartilaginous margins of 
the eyelids are black, but the eyelids themselves, both upper and under, are grayish-white. 
This white marking is continued fromthe ear to the end of the nose, in two lines, separated 
from each other by the black line above-mentioned. The upper white line reaches the end 
of the nose, where it is separated from its fellow on the opposite side of the face by a narrow 
mesial line of a dark brown colour. The under white line, after passing over the under eyelid, 
is lost in the white of the upper and lower lip; and there is a dark brown streak immediately 
below its posterior part. The upper aspect of the head is dark hair-brown, sprinkled with 
a few hoary specks. This colour is bounded by the white line, which passes over the 
upper eyelid, and it is continued forward of a darker hue tili it ends acutely at the tip of the 
nose. This arrangement of colour gives a peculiar character of sharpness to the features, 
and causes the nose to appear more pointed than it really is. 
2B 
