88S JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



Colour, — General colour of upper side bright ' hazel, ' bastil half of 

 individual hairs drab, a narrow paler line along middle of back, obso- 

 lescent but recognizable ; of the under surface ' cream buff'. Face 

 brownish white, approaching ' clay colour ', a white patch on crown, 

 between the ears. Ears covered with long hairs rather darker than 

 the back, forming a tuft. Tail basally coloured like back, fading 

 through ochraceous white to pure white, in last third of its length. 

 Hands and feet coloured like face forearms rather paler. 



In a common variety ' bay takes the place of ' hazel ' in the 

 general colour and the pale colouring on the tail is usually limited 

 to an orange- white tag at the extreme point. 



Skull. — Large and stout. — The nasals narrowing posteriorly for | 

 their length and then widening again. 



Dimensions. — Head and body, 400 ; tail, 425 ; hindfoot, 78. The 

 first two measurements are those given by Erxleben and are probably 

 fairly correct. Skull; greatest length, 71; basilar length, 56; 

 zygomatic breadth, 4*45 : nasals, 2"23 ; diastema, 15*6 ; braincase 

 breadth, 32 ; interorbital breadth, 28 ; upper molar series, 14*5. 



Synonymy. — Erxleben's preface to his Syst. Regn. An. is dated 

 1776. So as a choice has to be made between his and Zimmermann's 

 names, I have followed Blanford in adopting indica as the older. 

 Both authors, as well as Boddaert, quote Pennant's ' Bombay Squirrel'. 

 Sykes based his elphinstonii on three specimens now in the national 

 collection, two of which were the ' hazel ' and one the ' bay ' variety. 

 Distribution, — This race is found throughout the Ghats in the 

 Bombay Presidency. 1 have seen the ' hazel ' variety often North of 

 Poona, but never the ' bay '. It is possible that more material will 

 show that the two varieties do not occur together, but are as 

 well marked geographical races as any of the others, in which 

 case the name of elphinstonii will be available, for the * hazel ' 

 form by limitation, all the other names having undoubtedly been 

 based on the ' bay ' animal. 



6. Ratufa indica bengalensis^ Blanf. 



J 897. Sciurus indicus dengalensis, Blanford, Jour. B. N. H. S., 

 XT., p. 303. 



Colour. — General colour as in the dark variety of true indica, but 



