2 AFRICAN SQUIRRELS. 



Fitzinger and Trouessart. These several authors have descri- 

 bed no less than fifty Squirrels inhabiting Africa ! This 

 large number is a priori somewhat suspect and a careful 

 study has indeed led me to the conclusion that of this 

 number only nineteen species may stand. 



The origin of the prodigious confusion which reigns in 

 this group of Rodents is not far to seek and will be 

 obvious by reading Temminck's Esquisses zoologiques and 

 Gray's Synopsis. It seems that Temminck suffered from a 

 sort of Anglophobia, fatal for science, but which may in 

 some measure be attributed to his efforts to keep the Leyden 

 Museum ahead of the British Museum. This led him into seve- 

 ral mistakes and inaccurate considerations and was also the 

 cause of a violent attack by Gray in the » Synopsis" just re- 

 ferred to ; Gray accepted only two of Temminck's new species 

 and accused him of having encumbered the list with, doubles 

 emplois , etc. It should be observed that Temminck had 

 not seen the type-specimens in the British Museum and 

 that he could not find or understand some of the original 

 descriptions and that Gray on the other hand had not 

 examined Temminck's types in the Leyden collection ; he 

 found them however described »in Temminck's usual gene- 

 ral style". Nearly all the succeeding authors , adopting 

 either Temminck's or Gray's opinion , have proved by their 

 several mistakes that the African Squirrels require a complete 

 and impartial revision , based upon an examination of 

 the types. 



Some time ago I had the advantage of visiting nearly all 

 the Zoological Collections which contain type-specimens of 

 these Squirrels and I undertook the task of studying these 

 animals mouographically , at the same time intending to 

 give a catalogue of the specimens of this group in the 

 Leyden Museum. We owe the large collection at present 

 contained in this institution to the care of the late Tem- 

 minck and of Prof. Schlegel. 



I am very much obliged to the officers attached to the 

 different Musea which I visited , but especially to Dr. Günther, 



Notes tvom the Leyden M^useum, "Vol. IV. 



