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174 The Naturalists and the Six Recognized Subspecies of Tassel-Eared Squirrels Sciurus aberti aberti This truly elegant squirrel I procured in the San Francisco mountain, during the month of October, where I found it quite abundant, and after leaving which place I did not see it again. I have been informed lately by Major Backus, U.S. Army, that they are quite numerous near Fort Defiance, in the Navajoe country. When I first described this animal in the Academy’s proceedings, last June, I called it Sciurus dorsalis, since when I have found that the specific name of dorsalis has been occupied by J. G. Gray for one of the same genus. In the Academy’s proceedings of December I have called it Sciurus Abertii, in honor of Col. J. J. Abert, Chief of the Corps of Topographical Engineers, to whose exertions science is so much indebted. —Samuel W. Woodhouse, in Sitgreaves, Report of an Expedition down the Zuni and Colorado Rivers, 1853 Samuel Washington Woodhouse (1821–1904) was an American physician and a knowledgeable naturalist who accompanied the Sitgreaves Expedition, serving in both capacities (ref. 1, 2). Woodhouse collected the first tassel-eared squirrel, in October 1851, from an area in the San Francisco Peaks, near present-day Flagstaff, Arizona, and named it Sciurus dorsalis (ref. 3). Woodhouse renamed this specimen S. aberti because S. dorsalis had already been used. The species was named in honor of Colonel John James Abert of the U.S. Corps of Topological Engineers (ref. 4). Woodhouse, born in Philadelphia, developed an early interest in birds and in the techniques of their collection and mounting. In the 1840s Woodhouse entered the University of Pennsylvania Medical School. After a brief medical career he joined an expedition as the physician and naturalist, led by Colonel John James Abert. Woodhouse collected numerous plants and animals, some of which had never been reported. In 1851, Woodhouse joined a second expedition, again as physician and naturalist, led by Captain Sitgreaves. Their charge was to explore and assess the Appendix 3 T h e N a t u r a l i s t s a n d t h e S i x R e c o g n i z e d S u b s p e c i e s 175 navigational potential of the Zuni and Little Colorado Rivers. This is the expedition on which he collected the first tassel-eared squirrel (ref. 1, 2). Sciurus aberti durangi In 1882 two squirrels sent from Durango, Central Mexico, by Mr. A. Forrer were referred by me to Sciurus Aberti, Woodh., a species previously known from Colorado , Arizona, and New Mexico, and which I presumed to extend southwards down the high lands of the Sierra Madre as far as the point at which Mr. Forrer found it. Some doubt has been recently thrown on this determination, and I have therefore now made a renewed examination of Mr. Forrer’s beautiful skins. —O. Thomas, “On the Mexican representative of Sciurus aberti,” 1893 Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (1858–1929), a British zoologist and recognized expert on mammals, worked at the British Museum. He identified a squirrel skin sent to him by a collector from the Sierra Madre, Mexico. At first glance Thomas thought it might be S. aberti but, upon closer examination, recognized “sufficient difference” to name it S. a. durangi (ref. 5). Sciurus aberti ferreus In connection with certain studies of North American mammals which I have recently undertaken, I find it desirable to separate out a few forms under new names. . . . SCIURUS ABERTI CONCOLOR, new subspecies. Similar to S. aberti, but with no rufous area on the back, all the upper surfaces being gray throughout. —F. W. True, “Diagnoses of new North American mammals,” 1894 Frederick William True (1858–1914), an American naturalist and later an assistant director of the Smithsonian Institution, named a tassel-eared squirrel collected in Colorado Sciurus aberti concolor (ref. 6). Six years later, he found out that an Asiatic squirrel had been given the species name concolor, and to prevent any confusion renamed the squirrel Sciurus aberti ferreus. True served as the curator of mammals and librarian at the National Museum and in the administration of the Smithsonian Institution throughout his career, which began in 1878. Several species of animals are named truei in his honor. Some examples are the pinyon mouse (Peromyscus truei), the Mindanao wood shrew (Podogymnura truei), and the tailed frog (Ascaphus truei). True wrote a twenty-twopage...

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