Of the remaining sixty or seventy members of the genus Sciurus the most important is the com mon squirrel of Europe (Sciarits valgaris), which ranges from Ireland to Japan and from Northern Italy to Lapland. It is a little larger than the ehickaree, and, like that species, it is brownish red above and white beneath. In winter it undergoes some change of pelage, becoming gray or even almost white. The ears are tufted with little pencils of hair. A handsome Oriental squirrel (k;eittrus caniceps) is remarkable as the only known instance among mammals of the temporary assumption during the breeding sea son of a distinctly ornamental pelage. During most of the year this squirrel is but in December the back becomes a orange yellow, which becomes gray again late in March, after the breeding season is over. Of the other five genera one contains only a single species, a large and very handsome Bornean species (Phi throsciurus macrons), which is very remarkable for certain peculiarities of the skull and particu larly for the vertical grooves on the front sur face of the incisors. The tail is also unusually
lung, the ears have tufts, and the coloration is peculiar, the sides being banded with black and white. The genus Xerus includes four species known as 'spiny squirrels,' on account of the pelage, which is coarse and prickly, the hairs being intermingled with spines. They are ground loving species, and live in burrows which they themselves dig. They are somewhat larger than the chickaree and are all natives of Africa. The genus Tamias includes the small ground squir rels, chiefly American, which connect the tree squirrels with the spermophiles. They are all similar in size and habits to the common chip munk (q.v.). The remaining genera, mainly Old World species, are remarkable for their power's of sailing from one tree to another. They are described in the article FLYING SQUIRREL.
Consult : Cones and Allen, Monograph of North American flodentia (Washington, 1877) ; Stone and Cram, Ameriecm Animals (New York, 1902).