SCIURIDZ—SCIURUS VARIABILIS. 769 
golden or red extremities. ‘The hairs of the dorsal surface are black at the 
base, broadly tipped with fulvous, rufous, or bright red, the posterior half of 
the dorsal surface of the body generally much redder than the anterior half. 
Runs occasionally into melanistic phases, in which the whole animal is black. 
This species is most obviously distinguished among the South American 
Sciuri by its large size and very long, narrow ears, generally nearly or quite 
an inch in length, or even more. Its variability in color has given rise to 
numerous synonyms, often originating in the MS. names of collectors. It 
appears to vary in length of body from about 10.00 to 12.00 inches, the tail- 
vertebree being about one inch shorter, and the tail with the hairs about two 
inches longer than the length of head and body. 
This species was first described by Geoffrpy, in 1832, as Sciurus vari- 
abilis, from Colombian specimens, in which the ventral surface was red. 
Brandt’s 8. dangsdorffi, described from a Brazilian specimen in 1835, is evi- 
dently the same animal. Wagner,* in 1843, pointed out the great variability 
in color to which he then supposed the S. dangsdorffi of Brandt was subject, 
describing in detail four Brazilian specimens which varied greatly from each 
other in coloration. The ventral surface in one was light rust-yellow, in 
another white, in another rusty-brown, and in the other ferrugineous, dark- 
ening posteriorly to chestnut. The upper surface in the first was wholly 
fox-red, in the second black varied with brownish-yellow, passing into fox- 
red posteriorly, the third chiefly black above varied with yellow, the fourth 
nainly rufous. He failed, however, to identify Geoffroy’s S. varzabilis with 
this species. Tschudi redescribed and figured Geoffroy’s S. variabilis from 
Peruvian specimens, in which the dorsal surface was light reddish-brown 
sprinkled with black, the ventral surface generally white, but sometimes red. - 
Wagner, in 1842, published short diagnoses of Sciurus igniventris and S. 
pyrrhonotus Natterer, MS. These species lie redescribed in detail in 1850, 
with fuller accounts also of S. dangsdorffi, and a notice of the S. tricolor 
(Poeppig MS.) Tschudi. He refers to nine examples of S. dangsdorffi, seven 
of S. igniventris, and nine also of S. pyrrhonotus, all, with one exception, 
from Natterer’s collection. Under S. dangsdorffi, Wagner states that the 
additional material received since the publication of his former notice of that 
species had led him to retract the opinions there expressed respecting the 
variability of S. dangsdorffi, and that he considered as erroneous the reference 
* Suppl. Schreber’s Siiuget. iii, 183. 
49 Mw ; 
