Miscellaneous. 265 



Notes on a new African Squirrel from Gaboon. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



Mr. Ansell has sent from the Gaboon to the Museum a small 

 squirrel which appears to be new to the catalogues — 



Sciurus Sharpei. 



The fur soft, olive, very closely and finely punctulated with yellow. 

 End of nose, upper lip, underside of head, neck, and body, and inner 

 side of limbs white. Back blackish, separated from the grey of the 

 sides by a distinct margin, with an indistinct, pale, central, vertebral 

 streak and a short broad streak on each side of the upper part of the 

 back. Tail blackish, with white and yellowish tips to the hairs, which 

 form close, irregular, interrupted cross bands and a pale margin to 

 the sides of the tail ; the hair of the tail reddish at the base, with a 

 broad black band in the centre and with pale tips ; of the end of the 

 tail nearly entirely black, without any pale tips. 



Hab. Gaboon {Ansell). 



This species is most like Sciurus Isabella, Gray (P. Z. S. 1862, 

 p. 180, t. xxiv. ; Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1867, xx. p. 326), in 

 colour ; but the fur is shorter and harsher, the central stripe is more 

 indistinct, and the lateral ones much narrower. The underside is 

 white. 



Note on a Specimen of Macroxus annulatus, var. Frerei, from 

 Zanzibar. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.B.S. &g. 



Mr. Bartle Frere has kindly sent to the Museum the skin of a 

 small squirrel from Zanzibar, which at first sight I was inclined to 

 regard as a new species, on account of its distinct pale olive cheeks 

 showing vividly against its black whiskers, and the pale but bright 

 orange-colour of the underside of the body, rump, and inside of the 

 limbs, and of the pale rufous colour of the tips of the hairs of the 

 tail forming a pale margin on the sides of the hinder half of the tail. 

 I at first proposed to call it Macroxus Frerei ; but on comparing it 

 with the specimens of M. annulatus in the Museum (which generally 

 has the cheeks and underside white, and the tail pale varied with 

 blackish), I found one specimen, brought from Abyssinia by 

 Mr. Blanford, found at an elevation of 4000 feet, which had the cheeks 

 and underside of body reddish and the rump reddish, approaching 

 to but not near so dark and bright as the Zanzibar specimen, and 

 the tail intermediate in colour between the Zanzibar and the common 

 state of this species. There is in the Museum a specimen of 

 Macroxus annulatus brought by Mr. Jesse from Abyssinia, exactly 

 like the common colour of that species, which seems to be common 

 to the west, south, and eastern parts of Africa. 



Habit of Pandora. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



I have often observed living specimens of this animal lying in 

 burrows of sand, as described by Mr. Mason ('Annals,' xii. p. 184) • 

 but I cannot get at its natural habitat. The shells are only washed 

 up there by the tide ; and if they do not get into their natural situa- 

 tion they die, and will be found with the valves gaping open. 



