fore limb, tlie front of the hind leg, and the hind foot and all the under parts, are
rich maroon-chestnut. The tail black, rufescent towards the tip.
The ears are moderately sized and pointed, and are not pencilled. The moustache
and whiskers are long and black.
Inches.
Length of body . . • • • f • • • ■
■ „ of tail, without hair ....................................... • • 9'40
The squirrel from the Island oi Banka differs from the type of S. raffles» in two
respects: firstly, the shoulder is grey instead of being red; and secondly, the black of
the upper parts is prolonged down in a narrow hand before the shoulder, separating
it from the grey of the side of the neck. The tail also wants the brownish tip. In
all other respects it agrees most closely with the Sumatran race. In both of these,
there is generally indicated an obscure dusky, or blackish line from the shoulder
to the groin, underlying the white lateral band.
The Bornean and Celebean race.—The Islands of Borneo and the Celebes have
yielded a number of squirrels which haye been described at various intervals, during
the last twenty-five years, as distinct species, with one single exception, viz., the
S. rafflesii, var. bomeoensis, which Muller and Schlegel justly regarded as only
a local race of the laterally white-banded and red-bellied squirrel of the Malayan
peninsula, Sumatra, and Banka, and which had been first described by Desmarest
under the name of S. prevostii and afterwards by Horsfield and Vigors as S. raffles»,
which latter term Miiller and Schlegel accepted in preference to the former,
which had the claim of priority. They did so in recognition of the services rendered
by Baffles to the progress and development of knowledge regarding the islands over
which he had been placed as ruler.
The following is a chronological list of these supposed species from Borneo and
the Celebes, viz.: S e im s rufogularis, Gray; S. rufoniger, Gray; S. ergthromelas,
Schlegel; 8. atricapillus, Schlegel; S. schlegel», Gray; S. pluto, Gray; and
S. sarawakensis, Gray. Those from Borneo are S. rufomger, Gray; S, atricapillus,
Gray; S. pluto, Gray; S.. sarawakensis, Gray; S. schlegel», Gray; and those from
the Celebes, S, ergthromelas, Schlegel; and S. schlegel», Gray; whilst the looality
from whence S. rufogularis, Gray, was obtained is unknown.
That the Celebes form, S. ergthromelas, Schlegel, is not a local race, or essentially
distinctive of that group of islands, is fully proved by the circumstance that it is
almost the exact equivalent of the Bornean S. rufoniger; S, schlegelii, on the
other hand, approaches the squirrels which resemble 8, atricapillus, Schlegel, in
every respect but the presence of the blaok on the head. The skulls of these latter
specimens clearly prove that they are young individuals. Their bodies .are slaty,
grey, finely black and white speckled, the back being blackish, whereas the sides
of the neck, the shoulders, and the lower half of the limbs, are much the same as
the head in colour and speckling; the feet, however, tend to black in some, in which
the outside of the thighs is pale greyish-white, whilst in others it has a yellowish tinge.
The tail is occasionally banded grey and black, and in other instances yellowish and
black, there being about thirteen alternate light and black rings, of which the terminal
ring is pale. On the sacral region, the black of the back is contracted into a
narrow band, well marked off from the pale colour of the thighs. The sides of the
face and neck are commonly greyish, but in 'some they are washed with rufous,
tending undoubtedly to assume the S. schlegelii. garb which has been indicated by
Schlegel as a distinct species. The red would appear to commence around the eye
and to extend upwards from the throat, because in specimens with rufous on
the cheek, the colour around the eye is more marked than in others which are
younger. The white band extends from the axilla to the groin, and merges into the
grey of the outside of the thighs. The black line, below the white lateral line, is
broad, and is continued more or less along the external margin of the fore limb,
The chin is almost blackish, with grey grizzling, while the under surface of the
neck, the inside of the limbs, and the chest and belly, are rich chestnut.
In the true black-headed and grizzled phase, the head from the nose to between
the eyes, the chin, the feet, the outer border of .the fore limbs, a broad streak along
the side of the rufous of the belly from the shoulder to the. groin, and the tail, are
black. All the remainder of the upper parts and the base of the tail and the sides
of the face and neck and outsides of the limbs are greyish-black, grizzled with
white, with the exception of a broad white band lying above the black band of the
sides, and having a similar length. The under parts are deep chestnut. The ears
are of moderate size and rounded, and clad with short adpressed hairs.
Many specimens of this phase from Borneo and the Celebes, agreeing in every
detail with each .other,' have come under my observation. A, specimen of| S,
atricapillus from Borneo, in the Leyden Museum, has the upper surface of the back
nearly black, and is much darker than another and larger example from the same
island. I t dlosely approaches the type of S. ergthromelas, only the extremities
are jet black, and the bright-coloured lateral line is well developed and yellowish.
I t is undoubtedly intermediate betwteen that type and S. atricapillus, and is only
distinguished from S. schlegelii from the Celebes by its blacker head, its greyish
cheeks, black tail, and its better-defined yellow lateral line. S. ergthromelas and
S. schlegelii from the Celebes are also so like each other in general characters
that I cannot but regard them as marking some transitional phase intimately
related to the atricapilline form. Temminck considered S, schlegelii as the winter
pelage, S. ergthromelas as the coat of the breeding season, and S. atricapillus to be
the perfect livery.
In the type of S. ergthromelas from the Celebes, we have a squirrel which is
wholly black on the upper parts and tail, like S. rufoniger from Borneo, but with
some red on the lower portion of the limbs, which does not occur in the latter. The
black of the outside of the fore extremities is less marked than i§ th e Bornean
squirrels, but the fore feet are blotched with black, and the upper surface of one hind
foot is nearly entirely black, wMle the other is red, blotched with black. The shoulder
and thighs and the narrow line along the" side are the same as in Scmrus rufoniger,
and the colour of the under parts is identical in these squirrels from Borneo and
1 2