92 
JOUENAL OF MAMMALOGY 
asked native gorilla and chimpanzee hunters which one was the most 
dangerous game, and the answer was always in favor of the gorilla. 
To get a real good close-up view of a live gorilla is a treat indeed. 
Other questions often asked me on my return from Africa were: 
Do gorillas or chimpanzees capture native women and carry them off 
into the bush? And: Will the gorilla advance to attack unless he is 
wounded? As to the first question, I asked natives in all the localities 
I visited if such was the case and the answer was always in the nega- 
tive. I saw several natives, both men and women, however, who had 
been badly wounded by gorillas. As to the second question, yes. 
I had gorillas deliberately advance on me and on account of the density 
of the brush I had to retreat. I found, though, that when a gorilla 
came at me it always gave up the chase in a httle while. 
U. S. National Museum, Washington, D. C, 
THE RED SQUIRREL OF THE SITKAN DISTRICT, ALASKA 
By H. S. Swarth 
The red squirrel of southeastern Alaska was placed with Sciurus 
hudsonicus vancouverensis by J. A. Allen in his “Revision of the Chick- 
arees,^^ where vancouverensis was first described (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. 
Hist., vol. 10, 1898, p. 269). The present writer, in a report upon a 
collection of birds and mammals from Vancouver Island, comments 
upon certain features that distinguish the red squirrel of southeastern 
Alaska from typical vancouverensis of Vancouver Island (Swarth, 
Univ. Calif. Publ. ZooL, vol. 10, 1912, p. 88), without formally naming 
the Alaskan race. Further study of the red squirrels of the northwest 
coast region has emphasized the desirability of giving a name to this 
Alaskan form. It may be diagnosed as follows: 
Sciurus hudsonicus picatus new subspecies 
KUPREANOF RED SQUIRREL 
Type . — Male adult, skin and skull; no. 8767, Mus. Vert. Zool. ; Kupreanof 
Island, 25 miles south of Kake Village, at southern end of Keku Straits, south- 
eastern Alaska; April 23, 1909; collected by H. S. Swarth; original no. 7281. 
1 Contribution from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of 
California. 
