parachute is yellow near the hack, hut orange-red towards its external margin.
The yellow, which is brilliant, spreads forwards over the shoulders, so that the dark
colour o f the upper surface o f the neck is much narrowed. This is a well-marked
feature of this species, and is always more or less present. On the limbs and
margin of the membrane, the colour is rich orange-red, and this colour is prolonged
along the sides of the neck, below the yellow of that region. The tail is orange-
red, of variable intensity, tipped more or less broadly with black. The under parts
are pale orange-fawn, or pale orange-red. The chin is blackish. In some specimens
the hind feet are black, and the dark colour of the hack extends more on
to the sides than in others.
In a male referred by Hodgson to this species, there is no approach to the
formation of a dorsal line, and the dark dorsal area and the head have the sub-
apicai hands to the hairs pure white, as in examples of P . oral, but the characteristic
shoulder yellow is present. In this specimen there is no black on the chin, but its
absence may also be remarked even in the most characteristic examples of the species.
In a very young individual, the dorsal line is absent, and the head and neck
are concolorous with the body, also the upper surface of the parachute, which
differs from the back in the absence of the black tips to the hairs. The tail at
its base is concolorous with the back, but the remainder of it approaches to the
yellow colour of the shoulder and collar, and the tip is nearly blackish-chestnut.
The whole of the under surface of the body is pale yellowish-red. The lower
half of the ear is yellowish, and its terminal half, dark chestnut-brown, approaching
to black.
Inches.
The body of the adult measures . . . . . . . 1 6
The tail ........................................................................................................... . 2 2
The skulls of P. magnificus and P. nobilis are identical, and they are closely
allied to P . oral, the chief distinction between them and the latter being their
shorter muzzles and the more elevated character of the interorbital depression.
The range of this species is not well ascertained; but it has been found in
Nepal, Sikkim, and Assam.
P t e r o m y s a l b iv e n t e r , Gray.
Pteromys albiventer, Gray and Hardwicke, 111. In. Zool. 1834, vol. ii. No. 18 plate; Proc. Zool.
Soc. Loud. 1886, p. 88; Charlesworth’s Mag. Nat. Hist, new ser. vol. i. 1837; Hand-List
Mamm. B. M. 1843, pp. 134, 584; Wagner, Beitr. zur Säugeth. Faun, von K a sn hm ir
(Hügel), 1842, p. 573; Schreber, Säugeth. Suppl. vol. in. 1843, p. 222; Blyth, Joum. As. Soc.
Beng. 1847, vol. xvi. pt. ii. p. 865; Horsfield, Cat. Mamm. E.Tnd; Co/s Musi 1851, p. 162.
Pteromys mornatm, Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Descrip. Mamm. Voyage, Jacquemont, 1842-43, p. 62, plate
iv .; Wagner, Beitr. zur Säugeth. Faun, von Kaschmir (Hügel), 1842, p. 573; Schinz, Syn.
Mamm. vol. ii. 1845, p. 527; Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1859, vol. xxviii, pp. 277^ 287;
Cat. Mamm. As. Soc. Mus. 1863, p. 95; Jerdon, Mamm. Ind. 1867, p. 176.
Pteromys petavnstq, Müller und Schlegel, Verhandl. 1889-44, p. 106.
Pteromys magnificus, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1872, p. 635, pl. 1.
As remarked under P . caniceps, this species is closely allied to it,—so much so,
that if the grey head and the apparently rather larger ears of the latter are omitted,
one description would be equally applicable to both.
The fur has the same characters as in P . caniceps, in density, texture and
colouring. The longer hairs have, as a rule, a sub-apical white band which can only
be detected by careful observation, and they appear to be much more numerous than
in P . caniceps. The general colour of the body and head is a reddish-bay, darker
on the upper surface of the parachute and on the outside of the limbs. There is
occasionally a dark-brown band over the nose, a similar area .around the orbits, and
at the base of the whiskers; and the feet are black in some, while in others they
are the same colour as the legs. The cheeks are greyish.
Habitat.—Nepal, and the North-Western Himalaya to Kashmir.
In the Leyden Museum there is a large flying squirrel which was obtained by
Dr. Jerdon in Kashmir and presented to the Museum by the Marquis of Tweedale.
I t is almost jet black on all the upper parts, but slightly brownish on the upper
surface of the fore limbs and membrane. The cheeks are brownish. The only
portions of the under parts that are not concolorous with the back are the chin, throat,
chest and belly, which are brownish. A line of grey extends along the middle
of the belly. The tail is concolorous with the upper parts and is very bushy.
This seems to be a melanoid variety of this species, equivalent to the like varieties
which occur in the genus Sciurus, e. g., in 8. palmarum and S. lokroides.
A writer in the India/n Sporting Review1 mentions that flying squirrels are
numerous in the forests about Wurdan, in Kashmir, and that they live on the tops
of the dead fir trees, where they make a hole in the bark and hollow out a nest for
themselves inside. On scraping the bottom of the tree with a stick, the squirrel
pops out its head like an owl.
I have examined the types of P. imornatus, Is. Geoff., and do not find that
P. albiventer, Gray, differs from it in any respect. I t is a half-grown example.
P t e r o m y s c a n ic e p s , Gray.
Sciwroptems caniceps, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. x. 1842, p. 262; Hand List Mamm.
B. M . 1843, p. 185; Hodgson, Joum. As. Soc. Beng. vol. xiii. 1844, p. 67; Blyth, ibid.
vol. xvi. 1847, p. 866; ibid. vol. xx. 1851, p. 165; ibid. vol. xxviii. 1859, p. 278; Cat.
Mamm. As. Soc. Mus. 1863, p. 96; Jerdon, Mamm. Ind. 1867, p. 178.
Pteromys caniceps, Gray, Cat. Nepal Mamm. B. M. Hodg. Coll. 1846, p. 21; Schinz, Syn. Mamm.
1845, vol. ii. p. 57; Horsfield, Cat. Mamm. E. Ind. Co/s Mns. 1851, p. 160 ; Proc. Zool. Soc.
1856, p. 402.
Sciuropterus senex, Hodgson, Cal. Joum. Nat. Hist. 1844, vol. iv. p. 293; Joum. As. Soc. Beng.
vol. xiii. 1844, p. 68, plate fig. 2 ; ibid. vol. xvi. 1847, p. 866.
This species is closely allied to P. albiventer,—so much so, that at first I was
inclined to regard them as one species, and to consider the grey head of this form as
1 New Series, vol. i. p. 35.