Vol. XX, pp. 17-18 February 23, 1907 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



A NEW FLYING SQUIRREL FROM THE ISLAND OF 

 TERUTAU, WEST COAST OF MALAY PENINSULA. 



BY MARCUS W. LYON, JR. 

 By permission of the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 



Among a collection of mammals from the Island of Terii- 

 tau, made by Dr. W. L. Abbott, in 1904, there is an appar- 

 ently undescribed species of Flying Squirrel of the genus Pet- 

 aurista. Pulo Terutau (also written Trotau and Trotto), is a 

 small island lying about fifteen geographic miles off the west 

 coast of the Malay Peninsula, about five and a half degrees 

 north of the equator. The species may be known as 



Petaurista terutaus sp. nov. 



Type— Skin and skull of adult male, Cat. No. 123,934, United States 

 National Museum, collected on Pulo Terutau, April 9, 1904, by Dr. W. L. 

 Abbott. Original number, 3219. 



Diagnostic characters. — A member of the so-called nitidus group, similar 

 to Petaurista nitidula (Thomas) of the Natuna Islands, but top of head 

 with a grayish wash, a slight huffy wash over sides of body, and the black 

 on the end of the tail of greater extent. 



Color. — Top of neck, back, sides, upper surface of parachute, outer sur- 

 faces of fore and hind limbs and base of tail have the general effect of a 

 bright cinnamon-rufous or a bright hazel of Ridgway, clearest and purest 

 on top of neck and along the upper surface of parachute. Most of the 

 hairs have blackish terminal rings, which appear to a considerable extent 

 along the middle of back. Along the sides many hairs have wide, light 

 buffy subterminal rings. Top of head a mixture of whitish and cinna- 

 mon-rufous. Sides of head and neck, a color l)etween buff-pink and 

 pinkish buff. Underparts generally, salmon-buff tending toward dull 

 orange-rufous on the parachute. Tail, dull orange-rufous, considerably 

 blackened toward the base and with a blackish apex, 70 to 80 mm. long. 

 Feet, ring about eye, and small area about mouth, blackish. Posterior 

 half of ear blackish ; anterior half, dull orange-rufous. 



2— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. XX, 1907. (17) 



