Squirrel, sciurus vulgaris. A quadruped, slightly larger than a weasel, but no longer. The head and back are a tawny color and the stomach is white; however, there are also black squirrels : one sees some in gray and ashy colors in Poland and Russia. The tail of such animals is long, filled with thick hair, and is carried just above the back.

The squirrel sits, so to speak, when he wants to eat: in this posture the body rests in a vertical position and the paws, resting in front, are free; consequently, the feet serve as its hands to hold and carry to its mouth walnuts, hazelnuts, and acorns, which are its typical foods: the squirrel prefers hazelnuts and stocks up on them throughout summer for consumption in winter. This animal lives in the hollows of trees, where it also raises its young. The squirrel is so agile that it can jump from one branch to another and even dash from one tree to another. It is believed that it was designated in the past by the name mus ponticus, seu varius . Rai, synop. anim. quadrup. pag. 214 .

Linnaeus puts the squirrel in the class of animals possessing two elongated incisors; those being hedgehogs, porcupines, hares, rabbits, beavers, rats, etc. According to this author, the generic characteristics of the squirrel consist of having four fingers on the front paws and five on those of the rear, that its paws are appropriate for climbing and jumping, and that it does not have any canines. Syst. nat. Lipsioe, 1748.

By Rai’s method, the squirrel is one of a number of viviparous fissipedal animals that feed on plants and have two long incisors on each jaw. It is grouped under the genus labeled genus leporinum , because of the hare, which is its first species; others include the rabbit, the porcupine, the beaver, the rat, the marmot, etc.

The Virginian squirrel , sciurus virginianus, cinereus major , is almost as large as a rabbit and differs very little in color, because it is gray; it possesses four fingers on the front paws and five on those of the rear. Synop. anim. quadrup.

The authors mention other foreign squirrels ; it is not known whether they are of the same species as the ordinary squirrel or whether one has improperly given them the name squirrel : to check this it would be necessary to have exact descriptions of these animals. The abuse of names is all too frequent in natural history; we have a striking example of this in the case of the flying squirrel , a true cat so greatly resembling certain rats that one would be tempted to believe that those who had named it squirrel , had seen neither squirrels nor dormice, nor garden dormice. See Dormouse , Quadruped.