is blackish-brown, only slightly and sparsely tipped with yellowish on the sides.
The under surface of the tail is brown, the hairs with yellow tips. The chin to the
went, the inside of the limbs and anterior surface of the fore limbs, are rich
yellow-white, the white spreading externally on the fore limbs above the wrist,
but not ~>ciTQli-T.g the limbs. The feet are black. The cheeks, below the eye,
are concolorous with the throat.
I h a v e observed another type of colour in a squirrel the locality of which is
unknown, but which agrees with the Javan race in its pale head and nearly yellow
tail. The head is yellowish-brown, only slightly darker than the under parts. The
back of the neck, the shoulders, outside of the fore limb, and the rump and outside
of the hind limb, are blackish-brown; the feet black; but the rump and hind
quarters are sparsely white-grinded.'' The rest of the upper surface of the trunk is
rather rich chestnut, grizzled on the lower margin of the sides, where the colour, as
it loins the white, becomes blackish-brown. The chin, the cheeks, and under parts
are yellowish-white; the middle of the outside of the limb is white-grizzled; the
root of the tail is concolorous with the rump, and the remainder is yellowish. In
young individuals, the fur is darker and more richly coloured, the upper surface of
the head being concolorous with the back. The hind quarters and the outside of
the hind limbs and shoulders, and the outside of the fore limbs, are black, the first
being slightly white-grizzled; the intervening portion of the trunk reddish and
black, with which the rest of the tail is concolorous. The under parts are yellowishwhite,
an d this colour extends on to the front of the wrist.
The type of S’, albiceps is nearly as pale as S. hypoleucus, but the hmd limbs are
dark brown and also the fore feet and the proximal two-thirds of the tail, but the
head and neck are pure white, and also the inside of the front of the lower half of the
iimbs. The under parts are pale-yellowish, as in S. hypoleucus and S. mrmenter,
and the last third of the tail is broadly washed with yellow. In others, the head is
whitish, while the body and limbs are dark brown and slightly grizzled with yellow
and white; the front of the fore legs being whitish, but ail the rest of the limbs, dark
brown. The base of the tail is dark brown, washed with whitish, and in all the
remainder of its extent itis broadly washed with yellow. .:;
The S. hypoleucus, Horsfield, like S. (mrmenter, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil., was
obtained from Sumatra, and both of these correspond to squirrels referred by
TTfirafifttd to a variety of S. bicolor, which he called sondaica. Squirrels of
this variety {sondaica) have been obtained from Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Malacca,
and Siam. They vary from almost pure white, to rich, dark, rusty brown, generally
with pale heads, white or yellow before and between the eyes, on the sides of the
face and neck, and on the front of the margin of the thigh at the grom: the
outer surface of the extremities and the upper surface of the tail being concolorous
with the upper parts of the body. The back is sometimes darker than the limbs in
the dark forms and lighter than them in the pale forms, such as S. hypoleucus and var.
sondaica. T h e u n d e r s u r f ace and the inner side of the limbs and the lower surface
of the tail in the middle line, vary from pure white to yellow and yellowish-red,
and even orange-yellow. I have examined about thirty to forty specimens of
this variety.
The squirrel from the Celebes, referred hy X)r. Gray1 to M. ephippi/um and also
regarded by him as 8. auriventer, belongs to the same type as 8. hypoleucus, only a
little darker, but with the colours similarly distributed, and the colour also of the
under surface is pale reddish-white. The front of the head, from between the eyes to
the muzzle, the sides of the face below the ear,, the sides of the neck, the chin,
throat and under parts, and the margin of the thigh at the groin, are reddish-white;
the hairs on the light area of the head having dark-brown tips. The general colour
of the upper parts is a rich reddish-brown, the hair showing a distinct tendency to
ampliation in the formation of a narrow, pale yellowish, sub-apical band with a
brown tip. The colour gets darker and more chestnut along the line of demarcation
from the white of the under parts, and along the margins of the limbs and on the
lower part of the hind leg. The basal half of the hairs of the tail is yellowish-white,
and the remainder, dark reddish-brown, darker than the body and more brown. The
moustachial and other bristles are black, and the body-bristles, orange-brown. The
mesial line of the tail is concolorous with the under parts, but the short, mesial hairs
are darker.
I have examined the type of S. ephippi/um and numerous other specimens,
all from Borneo, the majority having been obtained in the north part of the island.
The ears are not pencilled as in Bornean examples of' 8. giganteus. The tail
is considerably longer than the body. The general colour of the upper parts
is dark, rusty brown, but a broad, darker area runs, from near the nape, along the
middle line of the back to the tail. In some, this dark colour is restricted to the
hinder half of the body, while, in others, it is entirely absent. The rest of the
upper surface of the animal is grizzled, and the dorsal, dark list gradually passes
externally into the colour of the sides. The sides of the face and neck, and the
chin and throat, are always, more or less, rather bright ferruginous, which may or
may not extend on to the outer surfaces of the fore limbs. All the rest of the
under parts and the inside of the limbs are white, more or less tinged with yellowish,
or with pale ferruginous on the chest and on the middle of the belly. Such is
the general distribution of colour, but the animal is subject to marked variations.
Occasionally the head is whitish-grey, and the dark list is reduced to a deep brown
area on the hinder quarters, the limbs being pale-yellow and the white on the
front of the thighs well defined. The tail is uniformly brownish-black, paling at
the tip to yellowish-brown. The sides of the neck, the shoulders, and flanks are
orange-yellow. The chin, throat, and chest are pale orange; the belly white. This
variety leads directly into S. hypoleucus from Java, Sumatra, Malacca, and the
Celebes, and through it into S. bicolor var. sondaica, Horsfd., which is the 8.
au/riventer, Is. Geoff.
The skull of S. bicolor is very much smaller than the skull of S. giganteus,
an adult skull of the former measuring only 2,-56 to 2'-97 the length in S. giganteus
1 Ann. and Mag. Nat. H ist 1867, p. 276.