" THE" COMMON STRIPED PALM SQUIRREL. 407 



I have had an opportunity of examining the skins and skulls in the 

 National Collection at South Kensington. Though the material avail- 

 able for study is unfortunately still very limited, there is enough to show 

 very clearly that there are at least two quite distinct forms : — 



A. With three pale dorsal stripes and a bund of short, bright 



rufous hairs along the underside of the midrib of the tail. 



B. With an additional pale stripe on each side, sometimes indis- 



tinct but always discernible, and having no rufous band of 

 short hairs under the tail. 



My difficulty has been to decide which of these forms is the 

 palmarum of Linne and to settle the question 1 have gone rather 

 thoroughly into the literature. 



Olusins, in 1606, described an animal under the name of Mustela 

 ajrkana. His description is confessedly based on a picture and some 

 notes, furnished to him by a friend, Jacobus PLiteau (of Rouen?) 

 He wrote of it "in utraque mandibula binis longioribus dentibus in 

 anteriore rictus parte proeditus : comedens, clumbus insidebat, anterioii- 

 bus pedibus cibum tenens et versans," which rather indicates a squirrel. 

 He added : "' Cauda quidem attollens, minime tamen supra caput retror- 

 quans sed in latum nonnunquam valde explicans, pavonis caudce pcene 

 instar." Any one who has watched the palm squirrel will recognise 

 this as a fair description of him, by a man who was mentally com- 

 paring him with the European squirrel. All this Clusius must have 

 got from his friend's notes, but when he adds " pedes in qulnque digitos 



erant divisi, quaternos antrorsum spectantes quintum autem 



brevem, retrorsum spectantem " he certainly was describing from his 

 picture. 



There followed notices of this M. africana by — 

 Eusebius Nierembergius in 1635. 

 J. Jonston in 1657. 

 J. Ray in 1693. 

 but all these were merely paraphrases of, or extracts from, the original 

 account by Clusius. 



In 1762 Brisson published his u Regnum Animale, " from which I 

 quote in full : — 



" Sciurus palmarum ; Mus palmarum (Vulgo.) 



Sciurus colons ex rufo et nigro mixti tceniis in dorso flavicantibus — • 

 L'Scureuil Palmiste, 

 2 



