434 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XX, 



a number of specimens many of them show a distinct band 

 of black, more especially on the apical third of the tail, where 

 there is sometimes developed a rather prominent narrow 

 zone of black, distinctly visible on the lower side of the tail 

 without parting the hairs. There is much reason to suppose, 

 however, that the presence or absence of black in the tail is a 

 seasonal feature, and that the wholly red tails go with the red 

 body pelage and the mixed black and red tails with the 

 olivaceous post-breeding dress. 



The first pelage of the young is of the olivaceous annulated 

 type, with, however, the general effect more rufous, and the 

 tail hairs wholly red. Most of the young (about quarter- 

 grown) specimens were taken the last of June and during the 

 first week of July, but one is labelled Nov. 18, showing that 

 the season of reproduction, and also of moult, is subject to 

 much individual variation. (For measurements, and further 

 remarks on seasonal changes and individual variation, here 

 somewhat modified by more detailed study of a greater 

 amount of material, see the original description of the 

 subspecies, this Bulletin, XII, 1899, PP- 213-217.) 



Mr. Bangs (Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., XII, 1898, p. 183; Proc. 

 New Eng. Zool. Club, I, 1900, p. 91) has considered the 

 squirrels " from the lowlands of the Colombian coast as strictly 

 typical Sciurus variabilis" a conclusion to which I have 

 already taken exception (this Bulletin, XII, 1899, p. 216). 

 At the time we both wrote it was presumed that the type 

 region of this species was Colombia, on the principle of ex- 

 clusion; but Mr. Bangs assumed the Santa Marta region to 

 be the type locality, while the non-agreement of Geoff roy's 

 description and colored figure with the Santa Marta series 

 led me to believe that the real type locality of 5. variabilis 

 must have been somewhere in the western part of Colombia. 

 On going over the subject again I still find it impossible to 

 make Geoffrey's description and figure fit the Santa Marta 

 animal. His figure shows -a squirrel with the posterior 

 fourth of the dorsal surface deep rufous, in strong contrast 

 with the more anterior part of the dorsal region, and the 

 basal two-thirds of the tail mainly black, a condition in both 



