186 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 
Colour of the body.—A black or blackish-brown dorsal line commences between the ears 
and terminates in the dark colours of the upper surface of the tail. A similar but rather 
broader line begins at each shoulder and ends on the buttocks near the tail; and on each 
flank there is another line, which extends from the shoulders to the haunches; they are 
separated on each side of the back by two other lines of equal breadth and of a grayish-white 
colour, intermixed or bordered with reddish-brown hairs. These lines conjointly, viz. the 
five dark ones and four pale ones, occupy the whole back, and there is none of the beautiful 
gray ground which exists betwixt the lateral stripes of the hackee. The sides are bright 
reddish-brown mixed with chestnut colour. The thighs and buttocks are hair-brown. The 
upper and under lips, the throat, the belly, and the insides of the extremities, are pale 
smoke-gray. 
The ¢ail is long and narrow, linear, or perhaps rather thicker at the root than at the tip, 
covered above with hairs, which are light wood-brown at the roots, then blackish-brown, 
and lastly wood-brown at the tips. The hairs are capable of an obscure distichous arrange- 
ment, and the resulting colour is an ill-defined border of wood-brown, bounding a mixture of 
blackish-brown, with a little wood-brown. The under surface of the tail presents an un- 
mixed reddish-brown colour in the centre, bounded by a black line which is faintly bordered 
by reddish-brown. 
Evctremities.—The fore-feet are shaped like those of the Hudson’s Bay squirrel, and have 
four toes, with a small thumb of only one joint, armed with an obtuse nail. Palms naked. 
Claws black, compressed, curved, and sharp like those of the squirrels, better fitted for 
climbing than for digging. Posterior extremities long. Hind-feet with five slender toes 
divided to the base, and four naked callous eminences on the sole at their roots: the rest of 
the sole is well clothed with short hairs. Both the fore and hind-feet are covered above with 
a smooth coat of pale grayish-brown hair. The hind soles are longer and more slender than 
those of the spermophiles described in this work, and considerably more so than those of 
the sciurus Hudsonius, The hind-claws likewise differ very much from the curved, sharp, 
hind-claws of the last-mentioned animal, and have more resemblance to those of the 
spermophiles. 
DIMENSIONS 
Of a recent specimen killed at Carlton-house. 
Inches. Lines, ; Inches. Lines. 
Length of the head and ee . » 5 6 Height of the ear . - O 4k 
an tail - é . _ 4 3 Breadth of the ear at its base . 0 5 
53 oeadians. . os 1 5 | Length from the heel to the tip of the 
>» from end of the nose es the centre | middle hind-claw c pa 3 
of the orbit - 0 dics >, of hind and fore-claws, about - 0 1 
>, ‘from the end of the nose to the | 
auditory opening 2 : ae 17h 
The tails of this kind of squirrel, particularly of the males, are often mutilated 
in their contests with each other, and they are very liable to be broken off in the 
attempt to catch them, so that it is rare to obtain a specimen with a perfect tail. 
