SCIURUS. 289 
No. 290. ScIURUS TRISTRIATUS. 
The Three-striped Ground-Squirrel (Jerdon’s No. 156). 
Native NaMeEs.—As in the last. Zeya in Singhalese. 
HapitatT.—Ceylon and Southern India; on the Neilgherries. Has 
been found in Midnapur, and it is stated to range northward to the 
Himalayas. 
DESCRIPTION.—Somewhat larger and darker than the last species, 
manifesting considerable variation in the colour of the dark lines of the 
back. In some the lines are rufous; in others dark brown or blackish 
throughout, or black only from the shoulder to the lumbar region. The 
general tints are rusty red on the head, greyish on the shoulders, blackish 
in the middle of the back, rusty on the haunches. Three well-defined 
yellow dorsal lines, not extending the whole length of the back; the tail 
rusty beneath, darker than S. pa/marum on the sides. 
SizE.—Head and body, 74 inches ; tail, 74 inches. 
This squirrel is more shy than the last, and keeps to the woods, 
although occasionally it will approach houses. Dr. Jerdon says a 
pair frequented his house at Tellicherry, but they were less familiar than 
S. palmarum, and endeavoured to shun observation. Kellaart gives a 
careful description of it, but does not say anything about its habits, at 
which I wonder, for it is common there, and takes the place of our 
little Indian friend, though probably its more retiring disposition has 
prevented so much notice being taken of it. Were it in the habit of 
frequenting houses in the manner of its Indian cousin, I am sure Sir 
Emerson Tennent would have devoted a page to it, whereas he does not 
mention it atall. It had also escaped McMaster’s notice, careful observer 
though he was. Waterhouse, in his description (‘ Proc. Zool. Soc.’ 1839, 
p-. 118), describes some differences in the skull of this and S. palmarum, 
but Dr. Anderson finds no difference whatever. 
No. 291. Scrurus LAYARDI. 
_ Layard’s Striped Ground-Squirrel (Jerdon’s No. 157). 
Hasitat.—Ceylon ; in the highlands and the mountains of Travan- 
core in Southern India. 
Description.—Dark dingy olive, inclining more to ashy than fulvous, 
except on the head and flanks. Lower parts ferruginous, paler on the 
breast ; middle of back very dark, with a narrow bright fulvous streak in 
the middle, reaching from between the shoulders to near the tail, and an 
obscure shorter stripe on either side, barely reaching to the croup ; tail 
ferruginous along the centre, the hairs margined with black, with white 
tips; a narrower black band near the base of each hair; tip of tail 
U 
