they appear to me to he referable to one species. Hodgson, who first described it,
referred to it ail those Himalayan squirrels slightly larger than S. lokriah, and
which had the ventral surface either pale whitish or slightly washed with rufous,-
the sides also being sometimes suffused with this tinge, especially on the anterior
half of the outside of the thigh which in many is bright orange-red ; hut this
colour is variable, and some squirrels have this portion of the body white, of which
S. blythii is an example, and others similar to it are before me from Bhutan and
Assam, which do not differ from S. lokroides, exoept in the presence of this white
area which is evidently only a variation on the red area, and probably a seasonal
change, as many show merely a faint rufous tinge in the inguinal region, that colour
feeing entirely absent on the outside of the thigh.-
I t is, however, worthy of note, that those squirrels which have a rufous tinge
in the inguinal region, rarely or ever have the outside of the thigh bright red,
and that the squirrels distinguished by white on their thighs are from Bhutan,
Aa.5i.Tu, and Hie Garo Hills. But I do not see that these latter differ in any other
respect from the squirrels sent by Hodgson as S. lokroides, with and without red
thighs. Moreover, one of Hodgson’s specimens of S. lokroides shows a tendency
in the thigh to become white.
Thé ventral surface is seldom alike in two specimens. I t varies from pure
white (young of Assam type) through grey to rufous grey generally suffused with
rufous on the groin and sometimes along the side and over the belly, hut in
others the rufous is all hut absent. In some there is a decided tendency to the
formation of a median, ventral, grizzled streak or line. The tail also is very variable,
being in some céncolbrous with the body, while in others it evinoes a tendency to
become banded, black and rufous yellow, and to have a black tip ; hut even this
wide difference of tail-colouring occurs in two animals which, in other respects, are
identical and from the same locality. The general tendency, however, for the tail is to
resemble the back. The upper surface is of variable intensity, the prevailing
colour being brownish-olive, minutely punctulated with yellow or rufous. On the
character of the annulations depends the tinge of brown distinctive of the individual.
The feet in some tend to beoome white, but in the greater number they
are concolorous with the upper parts, or a little darker.
In a specimen from Bhamô, where the species is not at all commoh, the under
surface is pale greyish, very faintly suffused with pale yellowish on the belly and
on the groin ; the upper surface is a rufous olive-brown, the tip of the tail showing
a tendency to black and white banding, hut the rest of it is concolorous with the
The species may be described as rufous olive-brown, the base of the hairs
greyish-black, and their remainder banded with yellow, black and yellow, each ham
terminating in a dark-brown or blackish point. The fur is slightly coarser and more
broadly annulated than in S. lokriah. The chin, throat, and ventral surface are pale
greyish or sullied white, more or less tinged with rufous, or the rufous may be confined
to the inguinal region, with the rest of the under parts greyish, with ocbasionally
a feeble, narrow, mesial, grizzled line. The ventral surface is never tinged with
bright orange as in S. lokriah. The tail is generally the same as the back, but the
hairs are more coarsely annulated, while in others the annuii tend to group themselves
in black and yellow rings, the tip being black in some, obscurely annulated in
others. The tail hairs have their bases yellow, instead of dark grey, and they have
two to three additional annuii. The ears are clothed with short non-adpressed
annulated hairs. No white tuft behind the ears. In the form referable to S'. blythii,
a white spot occurs on the inguinal region of the thigh in the position in which
the rufous of the so-called red-legged squirrels is developed. The groin, in some of
these squirrels, shows also, a decided rufous tinge, while the remainder of the belly
is sullied grey-white. If these forms were without the white thigh-spot they would
exactly conform to the type of S. assamensis. A squirrel in the British Museum
labelled S. tytleri, Verreau (Indes Orientates) agrees with S. blythii.
Blyth1 states that he had seen a specimen of this species renewing its coat and
acquiring its hymeneal dress, and describes it as assuming a variegated appearance,
during the period of transition.
I have compared the skulls of those forms referable to S. assamensis, and
S. blythii, with the skulls of Hodgson’s types of S. lokroides, and do not detect any
difference between them, whereas their skulls differ in the same respects from
S. lokriah, which is altogether a smaller skull with an entirely differently formed
facial portion. In S. lokroides, the inter-orbital portion of the skull is broad, more
especially between the anterior angles of the orbits, and the muzzle is thus broad
at the base and triangular, whereas in S. lokriah the inter-orbital portion of the
skull is much narrower anteriorly and posteriorly, and the muzzle is narrow at the
base, and of nearly equal breadth throughout. The muzzle of S. lokroides is also
yery much deeper than in S. lokriah. The nasals of the latter are long and narrow,
while they are much shorter and broader in the former, and not reaching nearly
so far back as in S. lokriah. There are many other differences, but these are
sufficient to indicate that they are quite distinct species,
Blyth at first considered S. lokroides and S. assamensis as identical, and he
stated that from an examination of a very considerable number of specimens collected
at Darjeeling, and in different parts of Assam, Cherra Punji, Tippera, and Arracan,
he could not perceive any diversity whatever in those from different localities, unless
it might be, perhaps, that on the average the Himalayan specimens were somewhat
more rufescent underneath ; but every gradation was observed. Notwithstanding,
in 1863, he separated S. assamensis and S. lokroides, regarding the squirrel S. blythii
as identical with S. assamensis, but the type of the latter, which unfortunately is in
a miserable condition, corresponds with S. lokroides, but differs from S. blythii
in the absence of the white spot on the thigh. Horsfield, however, referred a
specimen of the latter type to S. assamensis, and I believe correctly.
A jet-black squirrel of the same proportions as this species occurs in Sylhet and
Cachar, and I am disposed to regard it as specifically identical with it.
' 1 Joura. As. Soc. Beng. 1849, p. 603.
H 2