From the Encyclopedia Britannica 11th Edition, Volume 25
This is under the public domain.

SQUIRREL, properly the name of the well known red, bushy-tailed British
arboreal mammal, Sciurus vulgaris, typifying the genus Sciurus and the family
Sciuridae, but in a wider sense embracing all the rodents included in this and
a few nearly allied genera. For the characteristics of the family Sciuridae and
the different squirrel-like genera by which it is represented, see RODENTIA.

What may be called typical, that is so arboreal, squirrels are found throughout
the greater part of the tropical and temperate regions of both hemispheres,
although they are absent both from Madagascar and Australasia. The species are
both largest and most numerous in the tropics, and reach their greatest
development in the Malay countries. Squirrels vary in size from animals no
larger than a mouse, such as the Nannosciurus soricirius of Borneo, or N.
ininulus of West Africa, to others as large as a cat, such as the black and
yellow Ratufa bi-color of Burma and the Malay area. The larger species, as
might be expected from their heavier build, are somewhat less strictly arboreal
in their habits than the smaller ones. The common squirrel, whose habits are
too well known to need special description, ranges over the whole of Europe and
Norther Asia, from Ireland to Japan, and from Lapland to North Italy; but
specimens from different parts of this wide range differ so much in color as to
constitute distinct races. Thus, while the squirrels of north and west Europe
are of the bright red color of the British animal, those of the mountainous
regions of southern Europe are of a deep blackish gray; while those from
Siberia are a clear pale grey colour, with scarcely a tinge of rufous. There is
also a great seasonal change in appearance and color in this squirrel, owing to
the ears losing their tufts of hair and the bleaching of the tail. The pairing
time of the squirrel is from February to April; and after a period of gestation
of about thirty days the female brings forth from three to nine young. In
addition to all sorts of vegetables and fruits, the squirrel is exceedingly
fond of animal food, greedily devouring mice, small birds and eggs. The
squirrels of the typical genus Sciurus are unknown in Africa south of the
Sahara, but otherwise have a distribution co-extensive with the rest of the
family.

Although the English squirrel is a beautiful little animal, it is surpassed by
the many of the tropical members of the group, and especially by those of the
Malay countries, where nearly all the species are brilliantly marked, and many
are ornamented with variously colored longitudinal stripes along their bodies.
Every one who has visited India is familiar with the pretty little striped
palm-squirrel, which is to a considerable extent a partially domesticated
animal, or, rather, and animal which has taken to quarter itself in the
immediate neighborhood of human habitations. It has been generally supposed
that there is only one palm-squirrel throughout India, but there are really
two distinct types, each with local modifications. The first or typical
palm-squirrel, Funambulus palmaraum, inhabits Madras, has but three light
stripes on the back, and shows a rufous hand on the under-side of the base of
the tail. In Pennant's palm-squirrel, F. pennanti, on the other hand, there is
a pair of faint additional lateral white stripes, making five in all, and the
under-surface of the tail is uniformly whitish olive. As this species has been
obtained in Surat and the Punjab, it is believed to be the northern type. One
Oriental species (Sciurus caniceps) presents almost the only known instance
among mammals of the assumption during the breeding season of a distinctly
ornamental coat, corresponding to the breeding plumage of birds. For the
greater part of the tear the animal is of a uniform gray color, but about
December its back becomes a brilliant orange-yellow, which lasts until about
March, when it is again replaced by gray. The squirrel shown in the
illustration is a native of Burma and Tenasserim, and is closely allied to S.
caniceps, but goes through no seasonal change of color. Another Burmese
squirrel, S. haringtoni, differs as regards in a remarkabale manner from all
other known members of the group. It is a medium-sized species of a pale creamy
buff color above, lighter beneath, and with a whitish tail, while it is further
characterized by the absence of the first upper premolar, which shows that it
is not an albino or pale variety. Two examples were obtains by Captain H. H.
Harington, of one of the Punjabu regiments, on the Upper Chindwin river. It may
also be added that generic subdivisions of the squirrels are based mainly on
the characters of the skull and teeth. That they are essential is evident from
the circumstances that the African spiny squirrels Xerus (see SPINY SQUIRREL)
come between Sciurus and some of the other African genera.

