ScIuRUS. 281 
squirrels which have been referred to SS. lokroides, S. Assamensis and 
S. Blythii by Hodgson, M‘Clelland and Tytler, also the types of S. szmzlis 
(Gray), which were forwarded to the British Museum as S. lokroides by 
Hodgson. After a careful consideration of these materials, they appear 
to me to be referable to one species. Hodgson, who first described it, 
referred to it all those Himalayan squirrels slightly larger than S. Zokriah, 
and which had the ventral surface either pale whitish or slightly washed 
with rufous, the sides also being sometimes suffused with this tinge 
especially on the anterior half of the thigh, which in many is bright 
orange red; but this colour is variable, and many squirrels have this 
portion of the body white, of which S. B/y¢iii is an example ; and others 
similar to it are before me from Bhutan and Assam which do not differ 
from .S. okroides except in the presence of this white area, which is 
evidently only a variation on the red area, and probably a seasonal 
change, as many show merely a faint rufous tinge in the inguinal region, 
that colour being entirely absent on the outside of the thigh. 
It is, however, worthy of note that those squirrels which have a rufous 
tinge in the inguinal region rarely, if ever, have the outside of the thigh 
bright red, and that the squirrels distinguished by white on their thighs 
are from Bhutan, Assam, and the Garo hills. But I do not see that 
these latter differ in any other respect from the squirrels sent by Hodgson 
as specimens of SS. Zokroides, with and without red thighs. Moreover, 
one of Hodgson’s specimens of S. /okroides shows a tendency in the 
thigh to become white” (‘ Anat. and Zool. Researches,’ pp. 247, 248). 
The difficulty in laying down precise rules for colouring is here 
evident, but in general I may say that the upper parts are rufescent olive 
brown, the hair being grizzled or banded black and yeliow, commencing 
with greyish-black at the base, then yellow, black, yellow with a dark 
brown or black tip; the lower parts are rufous hoary or grey, tinged 
with rufous, or the latter shade may be restricted to the groin or inguinal 
parts. The fur is coarser and more broadly ringed than in S. Jokriah, 
and the ventral surface is never tinged with orange, as in that species: 
the tail is concolorous with the back ; the hair more coarsely annulated ; 
there is no white tuft behind the ears, as in the last species. 
Si1zeE.—About the same as the last, or Dr. Anderson says: “In the 
form referable to S. BLythit, a white spot occurs on the inguinal region 
of the thigh in the position in which the rufous of the so-called red- 
legged squirrels is developed. The groin in some of these squirrels 
shows also a decided rufous tinge, while the remainder of the belly is 
sullied grey white. If these forms were without the white thigh-spot, 
they would exactly conform to the type of S. Assamensis. A squirrel in 
the British Museum, labelled S. Zy#/eri (Verreau, ‘Indes Orientales’), 
agrees with S. Blythii” (‘A. and Z. Res.’, p. 249). 
Blyth has see a squirrel of this species renewing its coat, and 
