Note 151 — {100} CHAPTER VI

Sciurus macrurus. Say.—Body above each side, mixed gray and black; fur plumbeous, black at base, then pale cinnamon, then black, then cinereous, with a long black tip; ears bright ferruginous behind, the colour extending to the base of the fur, which, in its winter dress, is prominent beyond the edge; within dull ferruginous, the fur slightly tipped with black; side of the head and orbits pale ferruginous, cheek under the eye and ear dusky; whiskers black, in about five series, of which the four inferior ones are more distinct, hairs a little flattened; mouth margined with black; teeth reddish yellow; head beneath, neck and feet above pale ferruginous; belly paler; fur pale plumbeous at base; palms black; toes, anterior ones four, the thumb tubercle not longer than its lobe in the palm, and furnished with a broad flat nail; posterior toes five; tail beneath bright ferruginous, the colour extending to the base of the fur, with a submarginal black line; above mixed ferruginous and black; fur within pale cinnamon, with the base and three bands black; tip ferruginous.

ft. in.

From nose to tip of tail (exclusive of the hair) 1 7¼

Tail, from base to tip (exclusive of the hair) 9¹⁄₁₀

Ear, from head to tip 0¾

The most common species of squirrel on the banks of the Missouri river. It is allied to S. cinereus, but cannot be considered as a variety of that species; neither does it approach any of the numerous varieties of the very variable S. capistratus of Bosc.

The fur of the back in the summer dress is from ³⁄₅ to ⁷⁄₁₀ of an inch long; but in the winter dress the longest hairs of the middle of the back are one inch and ³⁄₄ in length. This difference in the length of the hairs, combined with a greater portion of fat, gives to the whole animal a thicker and shorter appearance; but the colours continue the same, and it is only in this latter season that the ears are fringed, which is the necessary consequence of the elongation of the hair. This species was not an unfrequent article of food at our frugal yet social meals at Engineer Cantonment, and we could always immediately distinguish the bones from those of other animals, by their remarkably red colour.

The tail is even more voluminous than that of the S. cinereus.

It seems to approach the Sc. rufiventer. Geoff. v. Dict. D. Hist. Nat. article Ecu. p. 104.—James.