Audubon's Mammals/MAMMALS1_3.BIN/dp/0012/00122.txt

Text File | 1992-08-25 | 18KB | 301 lines

$Unique_ID{QAD00122}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Fox Squirrel}
$Subject{Fox Squirrel; Sciurus; Capistratus; audio}
$Journal{Quadrupeds of America:  Volume II}
$Volume{Vol. 2:132-138}
$Genus{Sciurus}
$Species{Capistratus}
$Common_Name{Fox Squirrel}
$Log{
Plate LXVIII*00122P1.scf,35240022.aud
Audio*35240022.aud
Genus*00009.txt}

               (C) (P) Library of Natural Sounds 1990-91, 1992,
                              All rights reserved.
       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       A U D U B O N ' S   M A M M A L S

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. S., &c. &c.

                                      AND

                     The Rev. John Bachman, D. D., &c. &c.

                  -------------------------------------------
                                   VOL.  II.
                        --------------------------------


                          SCIURUS CAPISTRATUS.--Bosc.
                                [Sciurus niger]

                                 FOX SQUIRREL.


                                 PLATE LXVIII.


     S, magnus, colorem variens; naso auriculisque albis; pilis crassis; cauda
corpora longiore.


                                  CHARACTERS.

     Size, large; tail, longer than the body; hair, coarse; ears and nose,
white; subject to great variety in colour.


                                   SYNONYMES.

     SCIURUS CAPISTRATUS; Bosc, Ann. du Mus., vol. i., p. 281.
     SCIURUS VULPINUS? Linn. Ed. Gmel., 1788.
     SCIURUS NIGER; Catesby.
     BLACK SQUIRREL; Bertram's Travels in North America.
     SCIURUS CAPISTRATUS; Desm. Mammalogie, p. 332.
     SCIURUS VARIEGATUS; Desm. Mammalogie, p. 333.
     SCIURUS CAPISTRATUS; Cuv., Regne Animal, vol. i., p. 139.
     FOX SQUIRREL, Lawson's Carolina, p. 124.
     SCIURUS CAPISTRATUS; Harlan.
     SCIURUS VULPINUS; Godman.


                                  DESCRIPTION.

     This is the largest and most interesting species of the genus, found in the
United States.  Although it is subject to great varieties of colour, occasioning
no little confusion by the creation of several nominal species, yet it possesses
several striking and uniform markings by which it may, through all its
varieties, be distinguished at a glance from any other.
  The Fox Squirrel is furnished with the following teeth, viz:--

                              2         00        4-4
                     Incisive -; Canine --; Molar --- = 20.
                              2         00        4-4

     But although we have thus given to this species but four grinders in the
upper jaw, which peculiarity applies to nearly all the specimens that may be
examined,--yet, in a very young animal, obtained on the 5th of April, in South
Carolina, and which had apparently left the nest but a day or two, we observed a
very minute, round, deciduous, anterior grinder on each side.  These teeth,
however, must be shed at a very early period; as in two other specimens,
obtained on the 20th of the same month, they were entirely wanting.  The teeth
of all our squirrels present so great a similarity, that it will be found
impossible to designate the species from these alone, without referring to other
peculiarities which the eye of the practical naturalist may detect.  In young
animals of this species, the tuberculous crowns on the molars are prominent and
acute; these sharp points, however, are soon worn off, and the tubercles in the
adult are round and blunt.  The first molar in the upper jaw is the smallest,
and is triangular in shape; the second and third one a little larger and square;
and the posterior one, which is about the size of the third, is rounded on its
posterior surface.  The upper incisors, which are of a deep orange colour
anteriorly, are strong and compressed, deep at their roots, flat on their sides;
in some specimens there is a groove anteriorly running longitudinally through
the middle, presenting the appearance of a double tooth; in others, this tooth
is wanting.  In the lower jaw, the anterior grinder is the smallest; the rest
increase in size to the last, which is the largest.
     Nose, obtuse; forehead, slightly arched; whiskers, a little longer than the
head; ears, rounded, covered with short hairs on both surfaces; there is
scarcely any projection of fur beyond the outer surface, as is the case in
nearly all the other species; the hair is very coarse, appearing in some
specimens geniculate; tail, broad and distichous; legs and feet, stout; and the
whole body has more the appearance of strength than of agility.


                                    COLOUR.

     In the grey variety of this species, which is--as far as we have
observed--the most common, the nose, extending to within four or five lines of
the eyes, the ears, feet, and belly, are white; forehead and cheeks, brownish
black; the hairs on the back are dark plumbeous near the roots, then a broad
line of cinereous, then black, and broadly tipped with white, with an occasional
black hair interspersed, especially on the neck and fore shoulder, giving the
animal a light grey appearance; the hairs of the tail are, for three-fourths of
their length, white from the roots, then a ring of black, with the tips white.
This is the variety given by Bosc and other authors as Sciurus capistratus.
     Second variety:  the Black Fox Squirrel.  Nose and ears, white; a few
light-coloured hairs on the feet; the rest of the body and tail, black; there
are, occasionally, a few white hairs in the tail.  This is the original Black
Squirrel of CATESBY and BARTRAM, (Sci. Niger.)
     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 blackish 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
MCMURTRIE'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 districts 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.
                                                          Inches    Lines.
     Length of head and body .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   14       5
     Length of tail vertebrae   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   12       4
     Length of tail to tip   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   15       2
     Length of palm and middle fore claw .  .  .  .  .  .    1       9
     Length of sole and middle hind claw .  .  .  .  .  .    2      11
     Length of fur on the back  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    0       8
     Height of ear, posteriorly .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    0      7