GIANT SQUIRRELS OF BURMAH AND MALAY PENINSULA 77 



For instance, no amount of sunburn of the black-bucked species could 

 produce the speckling characteristic of the other; and, however 

 much alike the coloring of the underpart may appear, the hairs are 

 always conspicuously blackish at base in Ratufa melanopepla^ 

 while in R.pyrsonota they are uniform throughout, or possibly slightly 

 paler proximally. 



JSfote. — Since this article has been in type I have received Mr. J. 

 Lewis Bonhote's paper ' On the squirrels of the Ratufa {Sciurus') 

 bicolor group' (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 7th ser., V, pp. 490-499. 

 June, 1900). Three species are there recognized as occurring in the 

 Malay peninsula : Ratufa gigantea^ R. bicolor^ and R. affims, the 

 last divided into two races, R. ajffinis typica and R. affi}iis aurei- 

 venter. Mr. Bonhote's Ratufa gigantea is the same as that of the 

 present paper, and his Malayan R. bicolor is probably my R. melan- 

 opepla. His two races of R. ' afjinis,^^ however, I cannot identify 

 with either of the light colored species that I have examined. From 

 Ratufa pyrsonota they are both separable by their pale feet, while 

 from R. affinis they are equally well distinguished by the annulation 

 of the hairs of the back. The Ratufa aureiventer^ with its yellowish 

 orange belly, is evidently quite different from R. afiuis^ and should 

 doubtless be recognized as a distinct species. The Ratufa afinis 

 typica of Bonhote, though less strikingly distinct from R. affinis^ 

 can hardly be the saine as Raffles's animal. In addition to the annu- 

 lated fur of the back it appears to differ in the wholly yellowish 

 brown head, in the absence of the cinnamon tints on sides, thighs, and 

 front legs, and in the pure white underparts. This last discrepancy 

 may be due to individual choice of descriptive terms; but the absence 

 in the description of typicus of all reference to the dark brown cheeks 

 and ears, and cinnamon at least of sides — these characters all equally 

 conspicuous in both pelages of ajffinis — is scarcely to be thus explained. 

 I am inclined to believe that the Ratufa of Johore is distinct from 

 that of Singapore Island. Should this supposition prove to be correct 

 the Johore animal will need a name, as typica Bonhote 1900 is 

 preoccupied in the genus Rattifa by typiciis Sclater 1891 (Catal. 

 Mamm. Ind. Mus. Calcutta, II, p. 7). In any event Mr. Bonhote's 

 paper and mine supplement each other to the extent of increasing the 

 number of mainland forhis of Ratufa ' bicolor^ from four to five or 

 six. 



