SQUIRRELS AND MARMOTS 121 



and it is never found in forests. It is about six inches long without including the 

 tail; in colour the back is greyish, or reddish and blackish brown with three 

 longitudinal whitish yellow stripes, the sides being lighter in hue, and the lower- 

 parts whitish. 



The palm-squirrel is one of the commonest animals of India, and being 

 exclusively diurnal is, perhaps, the least wary of all. It is generally found in 

 plantations and gardens, on large banyan and pipal trees, and especially on 

 palms. It is frequently seen on the ground, but never far from trees, in which 

 at any alarm it may immediately take refuge. It shelters beneath the roofs of 

 houses, and sometimes even ventures into the rooms, and since it is also common 

 in gardens and plantations, it would appear, like the rat and mouse, to be one 

 of the mammals which follow man wherever possible. Indeed by some writers 

 it has been regarded as a half -domesticated form of the three-striped jungle 

 squirrel. Its food consists of fruits, seeds, and buds of trees ; but it also eats 

 insects, and is said to rob birds' nests, although this is doubtful. The cry of this 

 small and easily-tamed rodent is a shrill bird-like chirping. The nest, in which 

 the female produces a litter of two to four young at a time, is a large, rough 

 structure of grass, wool, or any kind of fibre, placed in the branches of a tree, the 

 gutter of a roof, or among the rafters of a house. 



striped The striped jungle-squirrel (F. tristriatus) is mainly remarkable 



Jungle-Squirrel. as tn e presumed original form of the palm-squirrel. Although its 

 cry is quite different, being much more piercing, it resembles the latter in colora- 

 tion, and in nesting on houses, but it is much smaller, and is met with where 

 the palm-squirrel is absent. The back is black or blackish brown with three 

 narrow longitudinal white or whitish stripes, and the lower-parts are whitish or 

 grey. This species is widely distributed over the forest-districts of India and 

 Ceylon, has been found in Sikhim, and is very common on the Malabar coast 

 where the palm-squirrel is unknow T n. 



Hodgson's Several species of marmot are found in the Himalaya and Tibet, 



Marmot. an( j s i nce one of these (Arctomys hodgsoni) occurs in Nepal, Sikhim, 

 and Bhutan, it probably lives on the southern slope of the mountains, and conse- 

 quently belongs to the Indian fauna. 



The lesser flying-squirrels are represented in India by Sciuro- 

 ying quirre s. ^ erug f usc i ca pHl US} which inhabits the mountains of Travancore and 

 Ceylon, and is also said to occur on the Nilgiris. India is also the home of several 

 of the larger flying-squirrels, which belong to a different genus. Of these the large 

 brown flying-squirrel (Petaurista oral) inhabits all the larger forests from the 

 Ganges to Ceylon, and those of the countries east of the Bay of Bengal from Burma 

 to Tenasserim, as well as the Mergui Islands. In length its body measures about 

 18 inches without the tail, and in colour it is dark chestnut or greyish brown or 

 rusty black, mixed with grey above, and lighter, sometimes white, below. This 

 species, which in different parts of its range is represented by local races, is nocturnal 

 in its habits, and sleeps in holes of trees during the day. Although principally an 

 inhabitant of the forest, it is often found in the neighbourhood of villages and 

 mango-plantations, and its food consists of fruits, nuts, bark of trees, beetles, and 

 larvse, but not of corn. When asleep this squirrel rolls up its body, and sits with 



