490 Mr. J. L. Bonliote on the Squirrels 



111(1). Carposina, H.-S. 



912 (1). Carposina herheridella, H.-S. 



Carposim herberidella, Stgi-. & Wk. Cat. Lp. Eur. 304. No. 2186 

 (1871). 



Hob. Europe. Asiatic Turkey— /f^zi:s—Sliar Devesy 

 {Native Coll. 1890). 



[To be continued.] 



LXIV. — On the Squirrels of the Ratufa (Sciurus) bicolor 

 Group. V>y J. Lewis Bonhote. 



In writing another paper dealing with various sub.specics of 

 squirrels, I should like to make a few remarks on what 

 appear to me the advantages and necessity of recognizing 

 these subspecific diflferences. 



In former days, when a iew skins roughly labelled and 

 undated were the only material with which the systematist 

 had to work, he was of necessity compelled to place under 

 one name the various nearly allied forms which came into 

 his hands ; many of them had been described by the collector, 

 who on getting a specimen he had not before seen, straightway 

 described it, having no means at hand of ascertaining whether 

 it had been ])reviously named or not, and possibly not 

 realizing the confusion he was storing up for the workers of 

 the next generation. Gradually, then, as these types accumu- 

 lated in large museums and were compared with each other — 

 isolated specimens from isolated localities — the first obvious 

 inference was that they all belonged to one species, and under 

 one name they were accordingly placed, forms showing the 

 most striking differences being allowed to rank as separate 

 species. Of late years, however, large series carefully 

 collected and with full data have been received, from which 

 we are able to see that many of these old types referred to 

 above are typical examples of well-defined races constant to 

 themselves and the localities from which they come. To call 

 these races species is misleading, as their points of difference 

 are not sufficiently great for specific characters, and most of 

 them would probably, if placed under conditions identical 

 with those of another race, lose in a few generations their own 



