74 NELSON 



General notes. — The type specimen of S. adolphei was collected 

 during the voyage of the French ship ' La Pylade ' by the ship's surgeon, 

 Adolphe Lesson, in whose honor the species was named. The speci- 

 men described above differs from the description of the type only in 

 being a little less intensely colored on the back and in having less white 

 on the underparts. Lesson mentions another specimen from the same 

 locality which had a black dorsal line, grayish sides and flanks, wifli 

 grizzled gray and white on outside of legs. This squirrel appears to 

 differ from S. a. dorsalis mainly in its darker colors. 



Specimens exa?nined. — One: from west coast of Nicaragua. 



SCIURUS ADOLPHEI DORSALIS (Gray). 

 Banded-backed Squirrel. 



Sciurus dorsalis Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, p. 138, 1848; Sclater, 



Ibid., 1870, pp. 670-671. 

 Sciurus rigidus Peters, Monatsber. K. Pr. Akad. Wiss., Berlin, 1863, pp. 



652-653. 

 Sciurus interrnedius Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., 3d ser. , xx, p. 421, 1867. 

 Macroxits dorsalis Gray, Ann. <Sr Mag. Nat. Hist., 3d ser., xx, pp. 422-423, 



1867 (part). 

 Macroxus nicoyana Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat Hist., 3d ser., xx, p. 423, 1867. 

 Macroxus melania Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., 3d ser., xx, p. 425, 1867.' 

 P Sciurus boot/lice Kl.-lv.'s, yion. N.Am. Rodentia, pp. 741-746, 1877 (part : 



specimens from Costa Rica). 

 Sciurus hypopyrrhus Allen, Mon. N. Am. Rodentia, pp. 746-750, 1877 



(part : No. 8628 from Costa Rica) ; Alston, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 



1878, pp. 662-664 (part); Allen, Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey Terr., iv, pp. 



881-882, 1878 (part); Alston, Biol. Cent.-Am., Mamm., pp. 128- 



131, 1880 (part); Alfaro, Mamiferos de Costa Rica, pp. 30-31, 1897 



(part : west coast of Costa Rica). 



Type locality. — Erroneously given as Caracas, Venezuela. (Speci- 

 mens from Liberia, Costa Rica, are typical.) Type in British Museum. 



Distribution. — Comparatively arid parts of tropical western Costa 

 Rica from near Alajuela (or perhaps even farther south) north to dis- 

 trict about Liberia, the peninsula of Nicoya, and perhaps adjacent part 

 of Nicaragua. 



Characters. — Colors brighter than in S. adolphei ; top and sides of 

 head decidedly paler and grayer than back ; broad area along middle 

 of back from nape to base of tail blackish brown or grizzled yellowish 

 brown enclosed by band of lighter or paler grayish along sides ; under- 

 parts white, buffy yellowish or bright rufous. Tail long and narrow ; 



' This may be a valid species or subspecies but the type was evidently a me- 

 lanistic specimen and in the absence of material I refer it here. The type came 

 from extreme southern Costa Rica (Point Burica). 



