184 
ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
rings of black and gray. The under surface of the 
body and inner sides of the limbs are pure white. The 
tail is nearly equal in length to the body, and when 
thoroughly developed so completely overshadows it as 
fully to justify the etymology of the name Sciurus, 
which is even more applicable to the present than to 
the European species. Both the surfaces of this organ 
are similar in colour to the back and sides, the under, 
however, being somewhat lighter ; and the long diverg- 
ing hairs are ringed in such a manner as to give the 
appearance of an external border of white enclosing a 
broad band of grayish black. Neither the muzzle nor 
the sides of the body have any decided tinge of brown ; 
but a very slight intermixture of this colour is visible 
on the former on a close examination. The ears are 
covered with very short close-set hairs, and offer no 
appearance of the bushy pencils which surmount those 
of the Common Squirrel. In size the American animal 
is full one-third larger. 
This species inhabits nearly the whole of the United 
States of America, but is found most abundantly in 
Pennsylvania and the Carolinas. In these states it is 
met with in immense numbers, living upon buds, shoots, 
acorns, nuts, and grain; building its summer nest of 
leaves and twigs in the extreme branches of the trees ; 
and retiring during the winter to the hollow trunks in 
which it had previously deposited its stores. Its fur is 
in considerable request, but not, we believe, to the 
same extent as that of the gray variety of the Common 
Squirrel, so abundant in the high latitudes of the Old 
Continent. 
