172 SCIURID^E. 



THE JUNGLE STRIPED SQUIRREL. 



Descr. Very similar to the last, but generally darker, the face, 

 forehead, back, and haunches more or less tinged with rusty-red, or 

 reddish-brown ; the stripes small, narrower than in the common one, 

 and not extending the whole length of the back ; tail beneath distinctly 

 rusty ; sides darker than in palmarum. 



Length, head and body, 7J inches ; tail 7J. 



Mr. Blyth says he observed no difference in size. I have always found 

 this species slightly larger and conspicuously heavier than palmarum. 



This species is so exceedingly similar to the last that many would only 

 look on it as a slight variety, but it differs very remarkably in its voice, 

 which is much less shrill, and indeed quite different in character. This 

 was first noticed by Mr. Blyth, and I can fully confirm his statement. It 

 is found in most of the forest districts of India, from Midnapore to the 

 extreme south and Ceylon, where it quite replaces S. palmarum, as indeed 

 it does in some parts of Malabar. I have not seen specimens from the 

 Eastern Ghats, nor did I notice it in the Bustar jnngles. Mr. Blyth 

 remarks that specimens from Midnapore quite resemble others from 

 Ceylon. Although generally, as Mr. Blyth remarks, the tendency of 

 this species is to avoid human habitations as much as that of the other 

 is to affect them, yet at Tellicherry, where I resided for some time, and 

 at other stations on the Malabar coast, where the whole country is 

 densely wooded, it does occasionally enter and even take up its abode 

 in houses. A pair frequented my own house at Tellicherry, but they 

 were much more shy than their ally, and always endeavoured to shun 

 observation. 



With reference to the very great similarity of these two squirrels, 

 Mr. Blyth well remarks, " The slight differences of form and colour 

 between these two species, so ditsinct in their voice and habits, should 

 indicate the extreme caution necessary ere we conclude other allied 

 races to he merely varieties of the same, from their general similarity of 

 size and colouring." 



157. Sciurus Layardi. 

 BLYTH, Cat. 341. J. A. S. XVIII. 600. 



THE TRAVANCORE STRIPED SQUIRREL. 

 Descr. Much darker than the last, being of a dark dingy olive-colour 



