22(5 RODENTIA.
the white cheeks, a dull, whitish hand behind the ears, and the short for upon the
outside oi the ears is whitish, excepting a slightly blaok pencil anteriorly .
There are two specimens from Ceylon in the British Museum; one is a female
and the other apparently a male: the former is pale-brownish, and the latter is blackish
much grizzled, both corresponding, more or less, to Blyth’s figure. The male
agrees with Pennaht's description. In the dark specimen, a black hand runs down
to front of the ear, separated from it by a narrow, pale area, hut in the other there is
no trace of a hand. In other respects, they are identical, it being impossible hut
to regard them as one and the same. H
A well-marked, large variety of S. macrawrm is generally distributed over the
W W parts of the Island of Ceylon. I t was originally separated byBlythas a
distinct species under the name 8. tennentii suggested for it by Mr. Layard.
differs from the generality of specimens of S. macrourm in being wholly black on
the upper parts, except on the vertex, hut Kelaart mentions that some individuals of
S. macrawrm occasionally assume that colour, and from the foregoing description
of the male 8. macrawrm, it is evident that that animal is intermediate between true
S. macrourm and 8. ferment». The area on the vertex is pale rufous-yellow. The
tail is black at its base, as in some examples of S. macrourm, hut the rest of the
hairs are broadly tipped with white, with the exception of those at the end, which
are wholly black, or somewhat rufous, which are also characters of 8. macrawrm.
The mesial line of the under surface of the tail is yellowish. The ears are strongly
tufted. The black patch behind the eye is more defined than in 8. macrawrm, hut
it is liable to considerable variation. The mnzzle, anterior to the eye, all the under
parts, and the lower half of the extremities, except the feet, which are black, are
fulvous-yellow. I , ,, »
The skull of the type of S. tennentii, besides being larger than any skulls ot
A. macrawrm I have examined, has also greater inter-orbital breadth, but the general
form of the two skulls is alike, and the shape of the nasals is the same m both,
but the muzzle of S. ferment» is broader than in 8. macrawrm. The two are,
however, so connected together by intermediate forms that I hesitate to regard
S tementn as a sub-species, notwithstanding these seeming, cranial deferences,
because these in all likelihood will be found to be variable, when a series of skulls is
examined. , , ., . .
I t is hardly necessary to remark that the Ceylon squirrel and its variety
S. tennentii are quite distinct from the Malabar squirrel of Sonnerat, although
Cuvier was inclined to see a similarity between Tennant’s and Sonnerat s figures, bu
a comparison of the two animals, side by side, dispels such a supposition. Horsfield
was under the impression that a good character by which to distinguish the Ceylon
squirrel from the large, maroon and black Indian squirrel, was, that in the animal
figured by Pennant tbe cbeek-band was double, while in f j mdicm it was smgle;
but this character, although seemingly persistent in 8. mdiaus, is a variable one
in S. macrawrm; some bave no cheek-band, while others have it only feebly
developed, and others have it double. 8. mdicm is a larger animal, with its
scrurtus. 227
coat varying but little from a deep maroon and black, tbe former colour being never
approached by 8. macrourm.
I t seems to me that the animal figured by Gray and Hardwicke1 as 8. macrourm
is a variety of 8. indicm badly drawn and coloured, with the ears disproportionately
large for a squirrel.
In the British Museum, there is a squirrel said to have come from Java, so
different from the other squirrels from that island that if the locality is correct it is
of great interest, as its affinities are more in the direction of 8. mdicm and
8. macrou/rm than of 8. bicolor. I t has its short ears with distinct pencillings projecting
0-40 inch beyond the tip of the ear, and it has two prominent, black checkmarks,
and the anterior and posterior limbs white for a short way above the wrists
and ankles, the anterior half of the face also being whitish. There is a white spot on
the occiput, with a pale yellow or rusty-brown area below it. The top of the head is
black, with scattered white hairs in front, and the area around the eye and before the
ear is yellowish-white, but the blackish-brown of the head is prolonged downwards
between the eye and the ear, partially dividing into two, one portion stretching
downwards below the ear, and the other, smaller and triangular, passing below the
eye ; these being akin to the cheek-markings of 8. gigantem and S. macrowm ;
and it is allied to 8. indicm by its colouring, and by an occipital mark which is
also visible in S. macrourm, but never occurs in 8. gigantem. The ear-tuft is
black. The general colour of the upper parts is dark maroon, darkest on the shoulders
and upper half of the fore leg and on the rump, which is sparsely' white-grizzled, as
is the lower portion of the dark colour of the outside of the thighs, also the lower
portion of the sides where the dark colour comes in contact with th e white. As
in S. indicus and 8. macrou/rm, the radial or lower half of the fore limb is
yellowish-white ; the lower portion of the hind limb above the ankle and the
first third of the hind foot are yellowish-white, the fore foot and the two terminal
thirds of the hind foot being blackish-brown or black.. All the under parts
are yellow-white, also the inside of the thighs. The tail is bushy and black,
many of the hairs being white-tipped ; its extremity being slightly rufous, and
in this also it conforms to 8. indicm, which has occasionally a pale rufous tip.
Inches.
Length of body . . . . . . . . . 18*00
„ of tail without hair . . . . . . 15*25
' H „ with hair .. . . . . . . J7*75
As the specimen is badly stuffed, the measurements are only approximate.
* SCITJRTJS PYGERYTHRUS, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil.
Sciuruspygerythrus, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Mag. de Zool. 1882, Cl. i.; Voy. aux Indes Orient. Bélanger,
, Zool. 1884, p. 145, pi. vii. ; Wagner, Schreber, Saugeth. Suppl. vol. iii. 1843, p. 199 (in part) ;
Schinz, Syn. Mamm. vol. ii. 1845, p. 84 ; Blyth, Joum. As. Soc. Beng. vol. xvi. 1847, p. 827
1 Gray and Hardwicke, 111. -Ind. Zool, vol. ii. (1834), pi. N o. 19.