Dr. J. E. Gray's Synopsis of African Squirrels. 323 



racem; prothorace antice rotundato, postice quadrato; 

 aptera, pedibus compressis. 

 Mas ignotus. 



Female. — Pale testaceous or dirty fawn- n^ 3 



coloured, with a velvety down which looks 

 whitish in different lights. Prothorax a large 

 plate rounded in front, quadrate behind, 

 covering the head, which is small and placed 

 nearly in the middle of the underside, and 

 from it a raised rib runs obliquely to each of 

 the anterior angles of the underside, and 

 another straight backwards to the base, 

 forming the foundation of the sides of the 

 thorax, each side of which meets the other CI]3J3y(j|||33' ^ 

 side in a ridge at the sternum, like the 

 ridge of a house inverted. The head is withdrawn into the 

 triangular tunnel thus formed ; the eyes are black, sunken ; 

 the antennae short, thick, eleven-jointed ; the palpi also very 

 short, with the joints like cups within each other. There are 

 no elytra, but on the middle of the back of the mesothoracic 

 segment there are faint indications of a suture. The stigmata 

 are very distinct on the underside ; the legs are lamellate, and 

 the tarsi short and thick. 



I have given the above description from two specimens which 

 I received from the Rev. Mr. Waddell. He mentioned that the 

 insect gave a strong continuous steady light for hours, which 

 has suggested the name. The terminal segments show no signs 

 of having been phosphorescent, being of the same texture as 

 the rest of the surface. 



Mr. Waddell informs me that it is rare at Old Calabar. 



XLII. — Synopsis of the African Squirrels (Sciuridse) in the 

 Collection of the British Museum. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R..S., 

 V.P.Z.S., Keeper of the Zoological Department. 



The British Museum contains a large collection of the Squirrels 

 of various parts of Africa. The series contains the original type 

 specimens of the species described by Kuhl from the Congo, 

 Waterhouse from Fernando Po, Ogilby from the Gambia, Riip- 

 pell from North and Eastern Africa. 



There are also three or four specimens purchased from M. du 

 Chaillu ; but they can scarcely be regarded as the types of the 

 species described in the ' Boston Journal of Natural History ' 

 under his name*, as only two of them bear any names, viz. : — 



* The American zoologist who misled M. du Chaillu into believing that 



22* 



