•was collected is not given, differs only irom the last in the greater amount of pale
yellow on the tail, which is so profuse on its latter two-thirds as almost to ohscure
the handing, hut like all the other speoimens it has a hlack tip. In another
specimen from Formosa, obtained in March, the upper fur is slightly paler than m
the dark-bellied specimen, and the under surface is almost concolorous with the
back, hut slightly washed with ohestnut, especially over the hinder half of the
belly, while it is entirely absent on the chest and on the anterior two-thirds of
the » « » I ventral line, which is grizzled like the sides. Indeed, the whole of the
belly is covered with annulated hairs like the upper parts, with chestnut hairs intermixed.
The tail is the same as in the other examples, but with little yellow,
the hairs on the posterior third being rather broadly black tipped. This form, then, is
in the grey-chested phase. Another and still more interesting example from the
same island, but without recorded date, has a broad, grizzled line down the ventoal
surface, the chestnut, which is dark and rich, being restricted to two narrow lines
which do not extend anterior to the axilla, so that all the chest and throat are grizzled,
like the upper surface. Th e tail is broadly bl^k-tipped like the foregoing specimen.
The last of the Formosan examples appears to he identical with the last-descnbed
squirrel, as they are exactly like each other, with this single remarkable exception,
that in the former there is not the slightest trace of rufous on the under parts,
which are grizzled exactly like the back. I t is a male, hut the date of its capture
is not recorded. These two specimens resemble in their coats the squirrel obtained
in March, with the rufous only faintly showing. The existence of red on the
belly is not a matter of age, as the young and adults are both rufous on that
area. , . I H .
Two squirrels from the Island of Hainan, clearly referable to this species,
differ in this respect, that the specimen shot in February has, as m the female
type, the whole of the under parts rich chestnut, extending over the chest and
throat • whereas, in the other, the throat and chest and a line down the middle of the
belly are grizzled without rufous, the sides of the belly only being rich chestnut.
The tails of these specimens are black-tipped, as in the types, but broadly washed
over their ends with yellowish, as in one of the Formosan squirrels.
Blyth’s S. griaeopeetus was described from a living specimen, the habitat of winch
was unknown, but it agrees with those squirrels which I have just desoribed
from China, Formosa, and Hainan.
This species appears to be confined to Western China and to the Islands
of Formosa and Hainan.
* S c iu r u s g o r d o n i , Andr. Plate XIX.
Scmru* y « r* » , Andr., Proc. Zool. Soc. Load. 1871, p. H 0 ; Blyth, Joum. As. See. Beng.
vol. xliv. 1875, ex. no., p. 87,
I have collected about twenty-five specimens of this squirrel from various parts
of Burma, north of the capital, and have found only one type of variation, mst., the
orange-red of the belly occasionally becoming pure yellowish-white, sometimes
yellow. In all the individuals, however, that I have examined, the ventral
aspect is distinguished by a grizzled mesial line, and the end of the tail is blackish,
broadly tipped with orange-yellow. A pale-bellied individual was killed in September,
but I have many others killed in the same locality on the same date and
of both sexes, in which the belly has the characteristic orange-red of this species.
There is a race in Assam which agrees with 8. gordoni in the general colour
of the upper fur, but is considerably darker on the under surface, and the mesial,
grizzled line is occasionally absent. The tail also closely approaches the character
of 8. gordoni, but it wants the sub-apical black band, but its extremity is washed
with orange or yellow as in this species. The Assam form is larger and darker, and
has sometimes been mistaken for 8. hippurus and 8. erythroeus, Pallas, and stands,
as it were, intermediate between the Chinese ventrilineated 8. griseopectus and
S. erythroeus ; and as it is doubtless quite as persistent as 8. gordoni and sufficiently
distinct from S. erythroeus, it may be indicated as the Assam var. of 8. gordoni,
and, for reference, stand as var. intermedia. 8. gordoni has the upper surface and a
narrow line from between the fore limbs along the middle of the body grizzled
olive-brown or greyish with a variable rufous tint ; the annulations are not so fine
as in S. erythroeus. The chin and the sides of the throat are paler-grizzled than on
the back and the lower part of the throat ; the chest, belly, and inside of the limbs
are either pale yellow or rich orange-yellow, or passing into pale chestnut in the
Assam variety in which the belly is rarely lineated. The ears are feebly pencilled.
The tail has the same proportions as in S. erythroeus and 8. castaneoventris, but it
is more persistently and uniformly concolorous with the body than in these species,
and is finely ringed with black and yellow, the rings being most distinct on the
latter fourth ; the tip is generally washed with oranger-yellow.
Length 9 inches, tail 7 inches.
S. gordoni, in its lineated belly, displays a closer affinity to 8. castaneoventris,
which exhibits this character, than to S. erythroeus.
The skull of this species, although considerably smaller than that of 8. erythroeus,
y et resembles it in form, but differs from it in its smaller teeth.
This squirrel ranges over Upper Burma to the north of -the capital, where it is
very common about villages. Its var. intermedia occurs on the eastern side of
Assam, and is found also at Sadiya.
S c iu r t j s h i p p u r u s , Is. Geoff.
Sciurus hippurus, Is. Geoff, étub. Zool. i. 1882, n. 6, tab. 6 ; Zool. Yoy. aux Ind. Orient. Bélanger,
1834, p. 149; Müller und Schlègel, Verhandl. 1889-44, pp. 86-92; Gervais, Voy. autour du
Monde, Eyd. e t Söul. Zool. vol. i. 1841, p. 89 ; Wagner, Schreber, Säugeth. Suppl. vol. iii.
1848, p. 201 ; Schinz, Syn. Mamm. vol. ii. 1845, p. 86 ; Cantor, Journ. As. Soc. Beng.
vol. xv. 1846, p. 249 (in part); Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. xvi. (in part), p. 171,•
ibid. voL xxiv. 1855, p. 472, et p. 473 (note); Cat. Mamm. As. Soc. Mus. 1863, p. 102-
Jlorsfield, Cat. Mamm. E. Ind. Co/s Mus. 1851, p. 154,
g 2