134 
FOX SQUIRREL. 
are, occasionally, a few white hairs in the tail. This is the original Black 
Squirrel of Oatbsby and Bartram, (<Sch Nigei-.) 
Third variety. Nose, mouth, under jaw and ears, white ; head, thighs 
and belly, black ; back and tail, dark grey. This is the variety alluded 
to by Desmarest, (Ency. Method, Mammalogie, 333.) 
There is a fourth variety, which is very common in Alabama, and 
also occasionally seen in the upper districts of South Carolina and Georgia, 
which has on several occasions been sent to us as a distinct species. The 
ears and nose, as in all the other varieties, are white. This, indeed, is a 
permanent mark, running through all the varieties, by which this species 
may be easily distinguished. Head and neck, black ; back, a rusty black- 
ish brown ; neck, thighs, and belly, bright rusty colour ; tail, annulated 
with black and red. This is the variety erroneously considered by the 
author of the notes on MoMurtrie’s “ Translation of Cuvier,” (see vol. i.. 
Appendix, p. 433,) as Sciurus rufiventer. 
The three first noted above are common in the lower and middle dis- 
tricts of South Carolina ; and, although they are known to breed together, 
yet it is very rare to find any specimens indicating an intermediate variety. 
Where the parents are both black, the young are invariably of the same 
colour — the same may be said of the other varieties ; where, on the other 
hand, there is one parent of each colour, an almost equal number are of 
the colour of the male, the other of the female. On three occasions, we 
had an opportunity of examining the young produced by progenitors of 
both colours. The first nest contained two black and two grey; and 
the third, three black and two grey. The colour of the young did not, in a 
majority of instances, correspond with that of the parent of the same sex : 
although the male parent was black, the young males were frequently 
grey, and vice versa. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Length of head and body - - - 
Inches. 
14 
Lines. 
5 
6 t 
tail vertebrae 
12 
4 
i 6 
tail to tip - 
15 
2 
it 
palm and middle fore claw - 
1 
9 
ft 
sole and middle hind claw - 
2 
11 
a 
fur on the back - - . 
- 
8 
Height of 
ear, posteriorly - - - 
- 
7 
HABITS. 
Although there is a general similarity of habit in all the species of 
Seiurus, yet the present has some peculiarities which we have never 
