Hi folks,

Sorry about this non-bird request, but I was extremely intrigued during my visit to the fair city of Vancouver last weekend. Marty and I went out to the UBC campus to visit the Museum of Anthropology (pretty impressive displays...), and I was nearly attacked by a begging squirrel: a *totally black* squirrel!!

I saw 3 of these coal-colored critters between the museo and the bus stop, and no 'gray' ones with which to compare them. It seemed to me that they had 'sharper-pointed' tufts on their ears than the Eastern Gray Squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis) that I have here in my yard in Olympia, but that may have been an illusion (that bright object in the sky last weekend was confusing me.....).

My recollection of Fox Squirrels (S. niger) is that their ears were pretty short, compared to the gray squirrels, but it's been years since I've seen a Fox. I know from the literature that there are melanistic Fox squirrels, but I'm unaware of melanistic grays.

Can someone please enlighten me as to what I saw? Many Thanks.

Jon. (got C's in mammology...) Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net