June 12, 1885.] 



SCIENCE 



475 



It proved to be a fine female specimen of Abert's 

 squirrel in the gray pelage; and I subsequently- 

 learned from others who have hunted them in this 

 locality, where they are by no means abundant, that 

 they are sometimes taken where their fur is of a jetty 

 black, with the tail broadly bordered with snowy 

 white, and perhaps similarly marked on the breast 

 and lower parts. 



Old hunters who have had the opportunity of ob- 

 serving its habits, say that it differs 

 but little from the ordinary gray 

 squirrel of the eastern states. In 

 this region it is confined to the 

 mountainous belts of the great pine- 

 trees, in which it spends most of 

 its time, rarely descending to the 

 ground except for water, and occa- 

 sionally for food. 



Specimens have been taken exhib- 

 iting the various intermediate stages 

 of coloring between the black and 

 the gray; and it is said that the 

 black variety is a wonderfully hand- 

 some animal, with its long, wavy 

 white emargined tail, and its fantas- 

 tic ear-tufts. 



The gray one, which I shot on the 

 day referred to, I think is, 

 without exception, a 

 specimen of the 

 finest squirrel 

 in the fauna 

 of our coun- 

 try. I have 

 no acquaint- 

 ance with 

 another 

 American 

 species that 

 can com- 

 pare with it. 



I do not 

 remember 

 having seen 

 at any time 

 a drawing 

 of th 

 squirrel: 

 so, after 

 having care- 

 fully pre- 

 pared the 

 skin and 

 skeleton of 

 my speci- 

 m e n, I 

 made the 

 life-size fig- 

 ure of its head which illustrates this letter. 



From it I also took the following measurements, 

 and description of its external characters and appear- 

 ance : — 



Entire upper parts of a grizzly, iron gray. Lower 

 halves of inner aspects of ear-tufts, and a median 

 broad stripe from shoulders to near root of tail, 

 of a brilliant chestnut. Ear-tufts large, com- 

 posed of straight black hairs. Entire under parts, 

 borders of tail, circum-ocular stripe, and upper sides 

 of feet, pure white. A rather broad dividing-line at 

 either side, between the white of under parts and 

 gray above, jetty black. Central hairs of tail, for its 

 entire length, also black, forming a 

 mid-third stripe down the member. 

 Claws horn-color and curved. 

 Whiskers composed of six or ten 

 black, stiff hairs. 



Other squirrels are also found in 

 this region, specimens of which I 

 trust soon to capture, as well as a 

 series of the various grades of the 

 black varieties of the present 

 species. 



It. W. Shufeldt, M.D. 



The classification and paleon- 

 tology of the U. S. tertiary 

 deposits. 



I trust that in the interests of sci- 

 ence you will permit me to lodge an 

 emphatic protest against the geo- 

 logical and paleontological fan- 

 cies which appear in a recently 

 published article by Dr. 

 Otto Meyer, on the gen- 

 ealogy of the species 

 of the older terti- 

 ary formations. 



HEAD OF ABERT'S SQUIRREL 

 SCIURUS ABERTI $. 





Centimetres. 



Length of body from tip of nose to root of tail, 



down the hack 



Length of tail 



35.0 

 34 



Height of ear, including tuft 



Fore-paw, from inner pad to longest claw . . . 

 Hind-paw, from inner pad to longest claw . . . 

 Tip of nose to anterior canthus of eye .... 



6.5 

 4.3 



4.8 

 3.2 



LIFE SIZE FROM NATURE. 



The article displays such a monstrous disregard 

 or ignorance (or both) of the literature of the subject 

 of which it treats, and so fully betrays the author's 

 misconception of the numerous species that have 

 been described from the region in question, that it 

 would not even call for a protest, were it not for the 

 air of respectability which is given to it by the cover 

 of the American journal of science. 



Little can and need be said in response to a thesis 

 which maintains that there is not sufficient evidence 

 to prove that the Vicksburg beds overlie the Clai- 

 borne sands, and that, as a matter of fact, the latter 

 will be found overlying the former, when not a par- 

 ticle of evidence is brought forward in support of this 

 statement. 



