SAY’S SQUIRREL. 
275 
He also remarks that it is only in winter that the ears are fringed, which 
is the necessary consequence of the elongation of the hair ; in our summer 
specimens, the ears are thinly clothed with hair, not rising above the mar- 
gins. 
COLOUR. 
The fur on the back, is for one half its length from the base plumbeous, then 
pale cinnamon, then a narrow line of black, then cinereous, and broadly 
tipped with black, giving it what is usually termed an iron-gray colour ; 
the hairs on the under surface are of a light-ash colour at base, and with- 
out any annulations brighten into ferruginous at apex, the paler colours 
beneath giving way to the broader markings on the extremities; the eyes 
and moustaches are black ; nails, dark-brown ; sides of face, around the eyes, 
both surfaces of ears, feet, chin, neck, inner surfaces of legs, and under sur- 
face of tail, bright ferruginous ; the hairs on the tail, are at their roots red- 
dish-yellow. with three black annulations, and are broadly tipped with red- 
dish-yellow. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Feet. Inches. 
From point of nose to root of tail .--10 
Tail (vertebrae) 
“ to end of fur - - - ' ’ 
Height of ear posteriorly - - - - t 
HABITS. 
The habits of this Squirrel are not very different from those of the Cat 
Squirrel, to which it is most nearly allied. It does not run for so great a 
distance on the ground before taking a tree as the southern Fox Squirrel, 
nor does it leap quite as actively from tree to tree as the northern Gray 
Squirrel, {S. migratorius,) but appears to possess more activity, and agility 
than the Cat Squirrel. 
The forests on the rich bottom lands of the Wabash, the Illinois, and 
the Missouri rivers are ornamented with the stately pecan-tree {Carya 
olivaformis), on the nuts of which these squirrels luxuriate ; they also re- 
sort to the hickory and oak trees, in the vicinity of their residence, as well 
as to the hazel bushes, on the fruits of which they feed 
They are becoming troublesome in the corn-fields of the farmer, who has 
commenced planting his crops in the remote but rapidly improving states 
and territories west of the Ohio. 
