The flesh of this squirrel is tender and edible, but that of the male has a strong-
murine flavour. The Indian boys kill many with the bow and arrow, and also
take them occasionally with snares set round the trunks of the trees which they
frequent. Hearne states that they are hard to tame. Their skins are of no value,
have never formed an article of trade, and are not applied to any purpose even
by the Indians.
D E S C R I P T I O N ,
Dental formula, incisors -§, canines -5E3, grinders ^ or ^ = 20 or 22.
Incisors, strong, very much compressed, deep at their roots from before backwards; flat
on the sides ; convex and of a deep orange colour anteriorly. The upper ones have an even
chisel-shaped cutting edge. The lower ones are not much longer and are more pointed.
Grinders.—The squirrels are said to have five grinders in the upper jaw when young. The
Hudson’s Bay squirrel loses the small anterior one very early, as, after examining a great
many specimens, I found none with more than four on a side in the upper jaw. In the tamias
and spermophiles the fifth grinder remains when the animal is full grown, but is pro-
portionably larger in the latter than in the former. The inner surface of the upper grinders
of the Hudson’s Bay squirrel are more obtuse, and consequently their areas are less wedge-
shaped than those of the grinders of the Spermophiles. They are likewise more excavated
on the crowns, and have less elevated ridges of enamel. The lower grinders have also
excavated crowns, and the two anterior points of each tooth do not form an elevated crest
as in the spermophiles. The under jaw is shorter but rather stronger than in the latter
genus, and the space for the lodgement of the brain is larger. There is also a much greater
distance between the orbits; the frontal bone is flat; and the nose less arched than in the
genera tamias and spermophilus.
Form.—Nose obtuse, forehead very slightly arched. Mouth rather far back. Whiskers
black, longer than the head. Ears rounded, somewhat concave; the posterior margin doubles
forwards to form a valve over the auditory opening, and the anterior one curves in to form a
helix. Both sides of the ear are covered with hair; that which clothes the outside being
longest, and when the fur is in prime order, projecting upwards beyond the margin ; but there:
is not at any time a distinct tuft on the tip of the ear, like that which ornaments the common
English Squirrel.
Colour.—-There is a short blackish central stripe on the end of the nose; the sides of the
nose are pale brown, sometimes • almost white. A broad stripe of bright chestnut commences
between the ears, and is continued down the back and along the tail nearly to its
tip : this chestnut colour is intimately speckled with black, and mixes more or less gradually
with the colour of the sides in different specimens. The forehead, cheeks, sides, and exterior
surfaces of the extremities are of a grayish-brown speckled colour, resulting from minute
black specks being equally distributed over a pale yellowish-brown or wood-brown ground. The
upper and under eyelids, a space round the mouth and the throat, are white. The belly and
inner sides of the extremities are smoke-gray. These colours vary with the season and
condition of the animal. In some seasons the chestnut-coloured dorsal stripe commences
behind the shoulders, is of a less bright hue, mingles more gradually -with the colour of the
sides, and is'not'continued so far down the tail. The outer surfaces of the extremities have
occasionally an orange hue. The belly is in some instahces nearly white, in others pretty
dark gray, from the number of black hairs interspersed over it. In summer specimens,
when the fur on the belly becomes thin, the colours of the upper and under parts are separated
by a blackish-gray line, extending from the shoulders to the thighs. This line is produced
by the roots of the fur being seen, and is not perceptible, in the northern specimens,
whose far is finer and longer; nor have I noticed it in more southern specimens procured
ih the winter. The fur on the back is fine and of a blackish-gray Colour, from the roots for
half its length! upwards ; the remainder of its length is wood-brown, with two or three rings
of black; the tips of the longest hairs are black. The fur on the belly is in the winter
rather longer than that on the back, bluish-gray at the roots, then white, with a:ring or two
of black below the tips.
The tail is somewhat depressed, and is linear. I t is full of long hair, but is not near y so
bushy as the tail of the English squirrel. Its hairs are capable of a somewhat distichous
arrangement, and then it presents on its upper surface a bright chestnut centre, and a light,
brown margin,: separated from the chestnut by a black band, most distinct near the tip of the
tail. Beneath, the tail "exhibits an intimate mixture of light brown and black, the latter
forming a band near the tip. The hairs on the upper surface of the tail carry the bright
brown colour to their roots, many of those beneath are black throughout their whole length,
but the majority of the under ones are brown, with a black tinge near their tips.
The extremities are covered with longer fur than: those of the spermophiles; the limbs are
robust; the fore-feet have four toes, with the rudiment of a thumb, covered by an obtuse,
thin nail, closely applied ; the third toe is rather the longest, the second is next in length ;
the first and fourth are shorter, and arise further back. In the spermophiles, on the contrary,
the second toe is decidedly the longest, and the first does not arise so far back as in the
Hudson’s Bay squirrel. The claws are very much compressed, and so much curved, as to feel
hooked; and they are very acute. The palms and Under surfaces of the toes are naked. The
hind soles are thickly hairy from the heel to tke naked tubercles at the roots of the toes, which
are five in number, are rather stout, and not long ; the outer toe is longer than the innermost
spring is rather pendulous.
Length of head and body . .
,, head . • •
„ tail (vertebrae) . .
J5 „ including für 1
,, palm and middle fore-claw
the points of the claws. The scrotum is large, and in the
Dimensions
Of a recent specimen.
Inches. Lines. Inches. Lines.
8 6 Length of fur on the back 0 10
. 2 4 ,, „ at the tip of the tail » * 1 6
5 0 Height of the ears (measured posteriorly) 0 6£
. 6 6 Measurements of the scull
1 0 Distance between the orbits . 0 7
1 10 Length of nasal-bones • * » 0 6