Page:Science vol. 5.djvu/511

 It proved to be a fine female specimen of Abert'a squirrel In the graj pelage; and I subsequently learned from others who have hunted them In this localli;, where they are by no means abundant, that they are sometimes taken where their fur is of a jetty black, with the tail broadly bordered with snowy white, and perhaps similarly marked on the breast and lower parts.

Old hunters who have had the opportunity of ob- serving its habits, say that it differs but little from the ordinary gray squirrel of the eastern states. In this region it is conBned to the mountainous belts of the great pine- trees, la which It spends most of ' its time, rarely descending to the

ground escepl f or i "

sionally for food,

Specimeus have been taken exhib- iting the various Intermedial stages of coloring between the black and the gray; and it is said that the black variety is a wonderfully hand- some animal, with its long, wavy white emargined tail, and its fantas- tic ear-tufts.

The gray one, which I shot on the day referred tu, I think is, without exception, specimen of the fiuest squirrel in the fauna

��aspects of ear-tufts, and a median broad stripe from shoulders to near root of tail, of a brilliant chestnut. Ear-tufts ian^, com- posed of straight black hairs. Entire under parts, borders of tall, clrcnm-ocular stripe, and upper sides of feet, pure white. A rather broad dividiDg-line at either side, between the white of under part« and gray above, jetty black. Central hairs of tali, for Its entire length, also black, forming a mid-third stripe down the member. i', ' Claws horn-color and curved.

rs composed of six or (en black, stiff hairs.

Other squirrels are alio foiuid in this region, gpecimeni of which t trust soon to capture, as well as a series of the various grades of the black varieties of the present spec e». ^ ^ SncKKLDT, M.D.

��The claasificatioii and paleon- tology of the U. S. tertiary depoaits.

���I trust that in the interests of sci- you will permit me lo lodge an phatic protest against the geo- logical and paleontological lau- cies which appear In a recently published article by Dr. Otto Meyer, on the gen- ealogy of the species of the older tern- ary formations.

��life-alze fig- ure of its head which illustrates this letter.

From it I also took the following measm ,

and description of its external characters and appear-

��LmKlli ot bodv trom Up of doh m root of Ul,

dawnUwIuA

Ijength of uti

Rel(fator«ir.)neludIii(lun

Pore-pnw, ttom tuner pad u langrn aUw. . . HiniipBW, from Inner pidlo longMlfllnw. ..

��The article displays such a monstrous disregard or Ignorance (or both} o( the literature of the subject of which it treats, and so fully Imtrays the author's misconception of the numerous species that have been descril>ed from the region In question, that it would not even call for n protest, were it not for the air of respectability which [a given to it by the cover of the American journal of science.

Little can and need be said in response to a thesis which mainialDS that there is not sufficient evidence to prove that the Vicksbui^ beds overlie the Clai- home sands, and that, as a matter ot fact, the latter will he found overlying the former, when not a par- ticle of evidence is brought forward in support of this statement.

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