a variation depending on a perpetuation, so to speak, of a character of youth. This
supposition is favoured by the circumstance that the majority of flying squirrels
referable to P. oaniceps which have come under my observation have been young,
and by the additional fact that there are, as it were, intermediate forms between it
and P. albiventer in which the head is greyer than it generally is in the latter
species, which is, as a rule, more or less distinguished by a certain amount of grey
about the cheeks. But on a more critical examination of P. caniceps, it appears to
me, judging from Hodgson’s types of the species, that it has larger ears, and if this
should prove to be a persistent character, then the grey head and the chestnut speck
above and. below the eye and the bright chestnut tuft behind the ears assume a
specific importance which they would not otherwise have. But there is no description
from life, or comparison of the ears of these two supposed species, and as my
observation is founded On the stuffed specimens in the National Collection, I do not
attach any great importance to it, but only mention it that it may be proved or disproved
by naturalists who have the opportunity to examine the two forms in life.
As the materials at present at our disposal are insufficient either to establish or disprove
the existence of these two species, I tentatively accept each.
The animal is as large as P. magnificus, but the fur is much softer and denser
than in that species and rather longer. I t is about one inch and three quarters long,
and in the first inch of its length it is slaty-grey and wavy; it then passes for
about two-tenths of its length into brown, and then into reddish-bay, each hair
generally ending in a narrow, dark-brown tip. Longer hairs are profusely scattered
through the fur, and in these the slaty base passes into black instead of brown, and
some of them have a sub-apical white band. The general colour of the upper parts
is thus a rich reddish-bay, which is very glossy in reflected lights, and rather redder
on the outside of the legs. The head is iron-grey, with longer black interspersed
hairs, and the cheeks also are greyish; above and below the eye there is either a
rich orange-brown spot, or a ring of that colour encircling that organ; and a
similarly coloured tuft of hairs, but brighter, occurs at the base of the ears, behind
their posterior angle. On the outer half of the membrane, the dark-brown tips
to the hairs all but disappear, and the red-bay band increases in breadth and intensity,
becoming rich orange-red on the margin of the parachute. The feet are also orange-
red. The tail is bushy and only very faintly distichous. I t is greyish at its base,
succeeded by dusky orange, followed by a broad black band which is generally
terminal, yet not unfrequently tipped with rusty brown. The orange is paler in
the young, but more prevalent. The chin is generally blackish, and the throat is
whitish, and all the under parts reddish or rather decided orange-red.
The body measures . . . . 1 4 inches, according to Hodgson.
And the tail . . . . . . . 1 5 " V,
Gray’s specimen was young, the body being only 9 inches and the tail 8^ inches.
The skull has a less expanded interorbital region then P. magmficus, and a rather
longer and narrower muzzle. The frontal depression is much deeper in some than
in others. The teeth in young individuals are rather strongly tubercular, but they
gradually become worn with use and the tubercular character disappears, which is a
generic character.
This flying squirrel has been found in Nepal and the neighbouring region of
Sikkim.
Pteromys letjcogenys, Temminck.
Pteromgs leucogenys, Temminck, Monogr. Mamm. Tab. Method, vol. i. 1827, p. 27; Temm. and
Schlegel, Fauna Japónica, Mamm. 1847, p. 46, tab. x iii.; Is. Geoff. St.-Hil. Diet. Class, vol. xiv.
1828, p. 131; Schinz, Syn. Mamm. 1845, vol. ii. p. 527.
This is a large squirrel with a rather shorter tail than the generality of the
allied forms P . caniceps and P . oral, to which it is closely allied.
The fur is very soft and long, and the basal two-thirds of * the hairs are slate
or mouse coloured, passing into pale brownish-yellow in the lower portion of the
terminal third, then into brownish, which is followed by a broad pale yellow band
which is tipped with dark brown. These yellow bands are not so prevalent as to
hide the underlying dark-brown and greyish, except on the anterior half of the
body, which is pale yellow-brown, the hinder half haying a grizzled appearance on
a brownish slaty background. The head is concolorous with the front upper parts,
but much more finely grizzled, and passes into pale violet-grey between the eyes,
and on the upper surface of the nose. Erom the nose to the eye, and around and
below the latter, the hair is dark rusty-brown. The upper lip and the area in
front of and below the ear are pale violet-grey. The chin is dark brown. The
under parts are pure snow-white, densely clad with fine fur, the white passing
into orange on the under surface of the membrane. The inside of the front limb is
brownish-black in its posterior half and orange-white anteriorly. An orange line
runs from the front margin of the fore limb, bordering the white under parts,
to the chin. The upper surface of the limbs is blackish-brown. The ears are
clad with long hairs, and the whiskers or cheek-bristles are feeble. The tail is
bushy and brownish-black, and the hairs slaty at the base, then yellowish-brown
succeeded by the broad dark-brown tips, many of these near their extremities
being broadly banded with yellowish. The greater part of the tarsus of this
species, as in P. mela/nopterus and P . xanthipes, is densely clad.
The skull has a rather long and narrow muzzle, and it is very like the skull
of P. caniceps.
Inches.
Length of body . . . . .. . t . . . lS'OO
» tail • ...............................................................................11-50
This species inhabits Japan.
n 2