446 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.52. 



Color. — Type: In good pelage, top of head and neck and upper parts 

 of sides of same, including ears, outer side of fore and hind legs and 

 feet, blackish brown ; back, shoulders to rump, brown, lightening to a 

 bufFy isabella color on sides ; underparts including lower part of sides 

 of head and neck and inner sides of forelegs, and a rather narrow 

 portion of inner side of hind legs, cream color, sharply contrasted 

 with the blackish of head, neck, and legs, and moderately contrasted 

 with the isabella-colored sides; tail above, a coarse mixture of cream 

 color and brownish, the lighter color much in excess except at base 

 and tip; underside of tail similar, but the cream color more prominent 

 at the edges and the dark brownish more conspicuous next to the 

 median line, the median hne being light ochraceous, slightly mixed 

 with brownish. 



SMIl. — Relatively small, posterior edge of nasals and nasal branches 

 of premaxillaries on same line, and combined anterior median pro- 

 jections of maxillaries, not unusually narrow. 



Measurements. — Type: Head and body, 330 mm.; tail, 385; hind- 

 foot, 80; condylobasal length of skujl, 63 ; zygomatic width, 42 ; post- 

 orbital constriction, 23; orbital constriction, 22; width of braincase, 

 29; maxillary toothrow, 13.5; mandibular toothrow, 14; weight, 3 

 pounds, equals 1.36 kilograms. 



Specimens examined. — Five from Tana Masa and nine from Tana 

 Bala Islands of the Batu group in United States National Museum, 

 and three from Tana Masa in the British Museum. No ratuf as of this 

 group were collected on Pulo Pinie of these islands. 



RemarJcs. — Ratufa palliata hatuana is not a well-marked form, it 

 is essentially an intermediate between the typical form and R. p. 

 laenata, having the skull form of one and the size of the other. Three 

 specimens from Tana Masa Island were identified by me in 1908 ^ as 

 "not quite typical of Ratufa palliata." At that time attention was 

 called to their smaller size. The subsequent careful examination of 

 two additional specimens from Tana Masa and nine from Tana Bala 

 leaves no doubt as to the advisability of recognizing the Batu palliata 

 giant squirrel as a distinct geographic race. They were called by 

 Wroughton in 1910 ^ 5. palliata laenata. 



Family MURIDAE. 



RATTUS SIMALURENSIS LASIAE, new subspecies. 



Type-specimen. — No. 114254, U.S.N.M., skin and skull of adult 

 female, collected on Pulo Lasia, January 6, 1902, by Dr. W. L. 

 Abbott; original number 1400 



Geographic distribution. — Pulo Lasia. 



I Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, vol. 1, p. 137, February, 1908. 



a Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., vol. 19, p. 895, February 28, 1910. 



