Sciurus Hudsonius, var. /3. Columbia Pine-Squirrel.
Smairbrown Squirrel. Lewis and Clark, voL iîi. p. 37.
Lewis and Clark describe a small squirrel which inhabits the banks of the
Columbia, and has similar habits with the Hudson’s Bay one. It is most probably
a distinct species; but as all our knowledge of it is derived from the short account
of it given by those authors, I have, as its discoverers have not bestowed on it
a specific name, ranked it, for the present, merely as a variety of the sciurus
Hudsonius,
The descript ion given of it is as follows:—
. “ The small brown squirrel is a beautiful little animal, about the size and form of the red
squirrel {Sc. Hudsonius) of the Atlantic states, and Western lakes. The tail is as long as the
body and neck, and formed like that of the red squirrel; the eyes are black; the whiskers
long and black, but not abundant; the back, sides, head, neck, and outer part of the legs are
of a reddish-brown; the throat, breast, belly, and inner part of the legs are of a pale red ;
the tail is a mixture of black and fox-coloured red, in which the black predominates in the
middle, and the red on the edges and extremity; the hair of the body is about half an inch
long, and so fine and soft, that it has the appearance of fur; the hair of the tail is, coarser, and
double in length. This animal subsists chiefly on the seeds of various species of pine, and is
always found in the pine-country.”
The sciurus rufiventer of Geoffroy, an inhabitant of the country around New
Orleans, has much similarity in colours to the above animal; but neither the
description given by M. Desmarest, nor that by Dr. Harlan of the New Orleans
specimens, correspond exactly with the account of Lewis and Clark. The sciurus
rufiventer seems to have a shorter tail.
[60.] 4. Sciurus Niger. (Linn.) Black Squirrel.
Sciurus niger. Say, Long’s Expedition, vól. i. p. 26*2.
Otcliitaraon. A lg o n q u in s .
So much confusion has crept into the accounts of the American squirrels, that
great uncertainty, respecting the species alluded to by authors, must exist, until
some resident naturalist favours the world with a good monograph of the squirrels
of that country. The black squirrels have been considered by some to be a
variety of the sciurus cinereus, or of the sc. tulpinus, and by others have been
referred to the sc. capistratus. M. Desmarest describes a small black squirrel,
which is distinguished from the large black variety of the masked squirrel, by the
softness of its fur. Pennant’s black squirrel is evidently the sc. capistratus of
later writers.
The squirrel, which is the subject of this article, is larger than the ecureil gris
de la Caroline of M. F. Cuvier (lesser gray squirrel, Pennant, Hist. Quad.), and
rather smaller than the “ large gray squirrel ” of Catesby. It is not an uncommon
inhabitant of the northern shores of Lakes Huron and Superior, where the greater
or smaller gray squirrels are never seen, and is by far the largest squirrel existing
on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, to the northward of the Great Lakes.
It does not extend further north than the 50th parallel of latitude, but its range
to the southward cannot be determined until the species of American squirrels are
better known. It is probable that it is not rare in the United States. There are
at present two pairs of American gray squirrels in the menagerie of the Zoological
Society, which differ from each other in size, and in the smaller kind (lesser gray
squirrel) having a tawny-coloured belly. Both these kinds have, as was pointed
out to me by Mr. Vigors, a peculiar wideness in the posterior part of the body,
and a fulness of the skin of the flanks, being ail approach to the form of a
pteromys. In the sciurus Hudsonius, the hind quarters are as slender and distinct
from the flanks, as in common European squirrels; and there does not appear to
have been any peculiar extension of the skin of the flanks, in the specimen of a
black squirrel procured for me at Penetanguishene, by Mr. Todd, surgeon to the
naval depot there, and from which the following description was drawn up.