384 SCIUBIDJE. 



Habits. This is one of the commonest and best known animals of 

 India, and of all wild mammals, in great part from its diurnal habits, it 

 is perhaps the most familiar. It is commonly found in groves and 

 gardens, and in avenues of trees along roads, especially on large 

 banyan and pipal trees, and though often seen on palms, it is by 

 no means particularly partial to them. It is very commonly seen 

 feeding on the ground about trees, very rarely away from them, 

 and it takes refuge in the branches when alarmed. It also very 

 commonly inhabits the rafters and thatch of houses and enters 

 rooms freely. From its abundance about cultivation and houses 

 and from its not being found in forests, this species is probably a 

 follower or " commensal " of the human race, as Mus rattus, M. 

 decumanus, and M. musculm certainly are ; and S. palmanim may 

 be the semi-domesticated form of S. tristriatus, just as Mr. Dobson 

 has suggested that Croddura ccerulea is of C. murina. 



The food, as with other squirrels, consists of seeds, fruits, buds, 

 &c., and according to McMaster of insects also. I have, I think, 

 seen this species eat the flying termites or white-ants. McMaster 

 says S. palmarum is said to destroy birds' eggs ; but this he doubts, 

 on the very reasonable ground that a nest robber would in the 

 breeding-season cause much excitement among the small birds with 

 which the squirrel lives on perfectly friendly terms. However, as 

 Sterndale justly remarks, S. vulc/aris is commonly accused of the 

 same propensity in Europe. The cry of the palm-squirrel is a 

 shrill chirp, resembling the note of a bird. The little animal is 

 very easily tamed, having originally little or no fear of man. 



The female has, according to Jerdon, two to four young at a 

 birth. It constructs a rough bulky nest, of grass, wool and any 

 fibrous matter it can obtain, in the branches of trees, or sometimes 

 in the eaves or rafters of houses. 



Blyth and Jerdon classed the small rufous striped squirrels, 

 S. brodei and 8. Tcelaarti, as varieties of the next species, which 

 they thought replaced S. palmarum in Ceylon ; but unless these 

 small broad-striped forms from Ceylon, of which there are many 

 specimens in the British Museum, are classed with S. palmarum, 

 it is impossible to keep S. tristriatus distinct. Some of the Indian 

 varieties with dark back and the tails rufous beneath, referred by 

 various writers toS. tristriatus, must also be united to S. palmarum, 

 if the two are kept separate. 



254. Sciurus tristriatus. The jungle striped Squirrel. 



Sciurus tristriatus, Waterhouse, Charlesivorth's Mag. Nat. Hist. i. 



p. 499 (1837) ; id. P. Z. S. 1839, p. 118 ; Blyth, J. A. S. B. xvi, 



pp. 874, 1001, xviii, p 601 ; id. Cat. p. 106; Kelaart, Prod, p, 51 ; 



Jerdon, Mam. p. 171 ; Anderson, An. Zool. Res. 258. 

 Sciurus (Tamias) dussumieri, A. Milne-Edwards, Rev. Mag. Zool. xix. 



p. 226 (1867). 



Anan, Mai. Other Indian names same as those of the last species. 

 Structure as in the last except that the skull is broader in pro- 



