i8 95 . MAMMALS OF THE MALAY PENINSULA. 95 



dispersal of seed will be found in a paper on the Dispersal of Seeds 

 by Mammals in the Journal of the Straits Asiatic Society. This squirrel 

 utters a sharp, bird-like, twittering cry when playing about or when 

 alarmed, and also a double-noted cry, " Atcheh, Atcheh," when 

 pairing. I have seen a pair of squirrels fighting briskly; they gripped 

 hold of each other and fell in a ball from the upper boughs of a tree, 

 but before reaching the ground separated and clung to the lower 

 boughs, rushed up to the top, closed again, and again fell, till at last 

 one fell on the ground and rushed off, pursued by the other. The 

 nest is often made in a hollow tree, and is a large structure made of 

 strips of bark and thin twigs, and lined inside with soft bast, which 

 the squirrel tears off boughs of trees with its teeth. I have also 

 found nests in the roof of a shed, in a plant of the prickly Bromelia 

 pinguis, and in an Elk's-horn fern (Platycerium) which was suspended 

 by a wire in a plant-house. In this nest was a single young one, 

 which, on the fern having been removed^from the house and put in 

 another part of the garden, was found to have been carried away 

 next day by the mother squirrel. The nest in the Bromelia plant was 

 quite exposed and only about two feet from the ground, the 

 squirrel trusting to the thorns on the edge of the leaves to protect its 

 young, of which there were two. The little ones were covered 

 with short, smooth, grey fur, and looked very unlike squirrels. 

 5. notatus is a bigger squirrel, grey with a red breast. It is less 

 common than S. tenuis, but far from rare. It has much the same 

 habits, but does not hang head downwards to feed. Its cry resembles 

 the striking of two pieces of wood rapidly together, and can be heard 

 a long way off. It is easily kept in confinement and readily 

 tamable. S.prevosti, Desm., Raffles' Squirrel, one of the most beautiful 

 kinds in the world, is common in the Malay Peninsula, but I never 

 saw it in Singapore. Its brilliant colouring — black, red, and white — 

 makes it very attractive, and it is easily tamed. All these squirrels 

 are most destructive to coco-nuts. Biting round holes in them and 

 getting inside, they soon clean out the flesh ; they even sometimes 

 put their nests inside the cleaned-out nut. They also destroy a great 

 deal of other fruits, especially durians. The small boys in Kedah 

 shoot them with stones from pellet-bows made of bamboo. 



5. bicolor is a strictly arboreal squirrel which lives in the tops of 

 the higher trees in the thick jungles. It is very variable in colour. 

 The commonest form in Singapore is black with a cream-coloured 

 belly. In the Peninsula it is usually entirely cream-coloured. It is 

 remarkably docile, but much less active than the smaller species. 

 When eating, this species sits transversely on a bough, grasping it 

 with its hind feet, the head and body hanging down on one side and 

 the tail on the other. It eats fruits of different kinds and also buds 

 and leaves. 



The red Flying-squirrel, Pteromys nitidus (Tupai Belang), is still 

 common in Singapore, inhabiting the thicker jungles. It remains 



