(note): ibid. vol. xvii. 1848, p. 345; ibid. vol. xxiv. 1855, p. 475; ibid. vol. xxviii.
1859, p. '275; ibid. vol. xliv. 1875, ex. no. p. 8 7 ; Cat. Mamm. As. Soc. Mus. 1863,
p . 1 0 8 .
SciurusJlavimanns, Schinz, Syn. Mamm. vol. ii. 1845, p. 84 (in part).
Macroxus vittatus, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xx. 1867 (in part), p. 278.
The squirrel described by Is. Geoff. St.-Hilaire from Pegu as S. pygerythrus
Tins the upper parts dark olive-grey, the basal third of the tail being concolorQus
with the back, and its latter two-thirds, except the black tip, ringed with olive-
yellowish and black. The feet are like the upper parts, but they are sometimes
washed with yellowish. The under surface from the chin to the vent, and the inside
of the limbs, are orange-yellow, which extends along the middle line of the under
surface of the tail. The hairs of the upper fur have five to seven alternate, dark
brown or even black and yellow bands, the apical band being black, the yellow
bands being rather pale and narrower than the dark bands.
There is a squirrel common at Ava, in Upper Burma, that appears to be
a pale variety of this species. The upper parts are pale olive-grey, but with the
same kind of annulation that characterises 8. pygerythrus, and the tail also is
marked exactly like the Southern Pegu squirrel. The colour of the feet, as in
S. pygerythrus, is variable, but it appears to be more generally of a yellowish tint
than concolorous with the back, but both kinds are met with. The under parts
have a pale yellowish tint of variable intensity. In the localities in which it occurs
it is associated with S. Ucmfordii. In the Leyden Museum there are squirrels
from Tounghu in Upper Burma which exactly resemble this form, except that they
are even more greyish.
Two adult $ skulls of the pale variety, from the dry country of Upper Burma,
and one adult skull of the darker typical form, are alike. They are distinguished
from the skulls of 8. cemiceps, 8. phayrei, and 8. blcmfordn by their much smaller
size. Among themselves they are much about the same size, but one of the
skulls of the pale variety is a little longer than the other skull of the same variety
when measured from the lambdoidal ridge to the tip of the nasals, but, in both,
the length from the inferior border of the foramen magnum to the root of the
upper incisors is the same. The difference in length in the former measurement
appears to be due to the nasals of the one being longer than the nasals of the
other. These bones, however, in the three skulls are much alike, moderately broad
posteriorly and slightly expanded anteriorly. In all, there is a slight depression
over the frontals. In two of the larger skulls, one being of the pale variety and the
other typical, the teeth are larger than in the smaller example of the pale variety,
but the difference does not exceed more than 0‘03 of an inch. These skulls are
miniature representations of the skull of S. bla/nfordii, but all of them are fully
adult. The longer of the two skulls belonging to the pale variety measures from
its lambdoidal ridge to the extremity of the nasals l -81 to 2*10 inches in a female
S. blcmfordii. They have also a close resemblance to the skulls of S. camceps and
to 8. phayrei, but they are very much smaller.
S c iu r u s c a n ic e p s , Gray.1
Sciurus caniceps, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. x. 1842, p. 268; Hand-List Mamm. B. M.
1848, p. 148; Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. xxiv. 1855, p. 477; ibid. 1875, vol. xliv.
ex. no. p. 86; Horsfield's Cat. Mamm. E. Ind. Co/s Mus. 1851, p. 155.
Sciurus----------------(?), Blyth, Joum. As. Soc. Beng. vol. x. 1841, p. 920.
Sciurus chrysonotus, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. xvi. 1847, p. 873, pi. xxxvii.; ibid. vol. xviu.
1849, pp. 602 and 608; ibid. -vol. xxiv. 1855, p. 474; Cat. Mamm. As. Soc. Beng. Mus.
1868, p. 103; Horsfield, Cat. Mamm, E. Ind. Co/s Mus. 1851, p. 159; Peters, Proc. Zool. Soc.
Lond. 1866, p. 429; Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xx. 1867, p. 281; W. T. Blanford,
Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 4th ser. vol. i. 1868, p. 152.
Macroxus ca/rticeps, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xx. 1867, p. 280.
The red-backed squirrel, which occurs in Pegu with S. pygerythrus and
S. phayrei, and which was described first by Dr. Gray under the name of S. camceps,
and afterwards by Blyth as 8. chrysonotus, has the general colour grey, or fulvous
above; the outsides of the limbs, with the exception of the feet, are grizzled grey;
the feet yellowish-grey: each hair being annulated with from five to seven alternate
black and grey, or black and fulvescent rings; the tail grey-grizzled with an abruptly
defined, black tip, as in 8. pygerythrus, S. phayrei, and S. blcmfordii. Under parts
and inside of limbs pale-greyish, sometimes with a faint yellowish flush. In certain
specimens the nape, shoulders, and upper parts of the back are vivid, light ferruginous
or golden fulvous, sometimes continued on to the base of the ta il; in some it
occurs only to a very limited extent, and in others there is no trace of this colour, all
the upper parts being grey-grizzled, exactly as in S. blcmfordii. The whiskers are
long and black, and there are slight, albescent pencils to the ears.
The skull of an adult male 8. caniceps, which had the bright, red, golden
colour of the back well developed, presents so strong a resemblance to the skull of
S. blcmfordii that it is extremely difficult to seize on any point wherein they differ.
The character of the occipital region is apt to vary, as in two fully adult and male
skulls of this species it slopes much more forwards and downwards in one than
in the other. The nasals vary, heing longer and broader in some than in others.
The shape of the premaxillary portion of the skull is much the same as in
8. bla/nfordii. The teeth are a little larger than those of that form, but not more
so than could be explained on the ground of individual variation. This skull
has also a strong resemblance to the skull of 8. grisei/manus, but it is somewhat
larger. I t also has all the leading features of the skull of 8. phayrei, only the teeth
are larger than those of any of the skulls of the types, but they are not larger than
the teeth of a skull which Blyth referred to this species and which he obtained in
Lower Martaban. Such facts, taken in conjunction with those to be mentioned
under 8. bla/nfordii, suggest that there is a very intimate connection between all
of these forms, if they do not ultimately prove to be identical.
This species occurs in Upper Tenasserim and has been found also at Tavoy.
i Temminok, in Les Esq. Zool. sur la Cóte de Guiñé (1853), has described a squirrel from the West Coast of Africa
under this name, so that this African species remains to he re-named and may stand as S. temminckii.