Geo,
We have melanistic fox squirrels here, but they are rarely completely black as they can be in some other areas. They generally get some black on their bellies and different amounts of the normally orange portions are black.

We do not have the black masks that is most common on the coastal plain below the fall line in your part of the world.

Gil there are other "fox" squirrel including the Chiricahua Fox Squirrel and Apache Fox Squirrel, but the common fox Squirrel from the midgrass to the barrier islands is Sciurus niger (translating to black squirrel), because the first one described was a pure black one. I forget who was the author of this description but his second squirrel of the morning he wrote up as Sciurus carolinensus - and it was a grey version. He thought they were different species. Later, when it was confirmed that the two were the same species, the S. niger name had precedence.

They all taste great however.

_________
BrentD, (Professor - just for Stan)

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