On llu HarcA of I)ieiiioin3's jiernyi. 391 



XLV. — The Races of Diomomys pernyi. 

 By Oldfield Thomas. 



(Publislicd by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



The handsome squinel Dremomijs pernyi is now known to 

 raii^e Ironi the C'hin Hills, Upper Binrna, eastwards across 

 the whole of Ciiina to Aii-hwei and Fokicn, and it is not 

 unnatural that in this huge area a number of local subspecies 

 .should have become ditiV-rentiated. 



Air. Glover Allen lias recently pointed out reasons for 

 giving special names to the forms of Ichang and 8outli 

 Yunnan; and in laying out the Museum series of D. pernyi, 

 about sixty in number, I liud that his races both deserve 

 recognition, while four others apj)ear to need descrifjtiou. 



My attention was first attracted to this question about 189G, 

 and as so much depended on the identification of the original 

 Scmrus perni/iy which was said to come from the province o£ 

 Szc-chwan, Prof. Milne-Edwards was good enough to send 

 to us two examples representing the typical form, collected 

 by Pure Soulie at Tse-kow, in N.W. Yunnan, close to the 

 western border of Sze-chwan. In Mr. Allen's papers quite a 

 different form is taken as the typical pernyi^ and I have 

 therefore again consulted Paris as to tlie characters of the 

 actual type collected by Perny. About this Prof. Trouessart 

 has been so good as to give me such details as to show that 

 it is really the same as the N.W. Yunnan form, as I had 

 hitherto supposed. The grey form considered by Mr. Allen 

 as typical pernyi therefore needs a new name. 



Tiic subspecies which I should recognize are as follows, 

 passing from west to east : — 



1. Dremoniys pernyi pernyi, M.-Edw. 

 Kev. Mag. Zool. (2) xLs. p. 230, pi. xix. (1867). 



Size comparatively large, an adult skull measuring 53*5 mm. 

 in greatest length, with a tacial length* of 27'6. General 

 colour saturate, rich brownish olivaceous, the postauricular 

 patches strongly contrasted. Middle area of underside of 



* See P. Z. S. 1886, p. 75 (footnote). In these squirrels, where the 

 length of the noae is of niiportance, and yet the nasal bones are too irre- 

 gular posteriorly to furnish a satisfactory measuring-point, tho lengths 

 of " face" and •* brain-case,'' as described iu the above reference, appear 

 ■worthy of utilization. 



