o94 Mr. Ii. C. Wrongliton on the Forms of Squirrel 



By the courtesy of Dr. H. O. Forbes, of the Liverpool 

 Museum, who sent Gray's type for inspection, I am in a 

 position to state that Sc. splendidus has nothinji; to do with 

 this group and must be deleted from the list. On tlie other 

 hand, harmandi, M.-Edw. (from the island Phu Kok), must 

 be added to it. 



Of the new list tlius formed, finlaysoni^ Horsf., germani^ 

 M.-Edw., and harmandi, M.-Edw., represent island forms 

 which are apparently quite rixed and show no signs of inter- 

 gradation with any other forms. I propose to rank them all 

 as distinct species. 



A large black form from the sea-coast south of Bangkok, 

 though a mainland form, also shows absolutely no signs of 

 intergradation with other forms, nor, indeed, so far as our 

 material goes, of variation of any sort, and should therefore 

 be accepted as a good species. 



The black feet mferrugineus, the all-red squirrel of Pegu, 

 are so absolutely constant and characteristic that it too 

 must be given specific rank. 



The all-red squirrel of Siam, cinnamonieus, Temm., is a 

 somewhat doubtful case. Temminck based his cinnamorneus 

 on three specimens, and he felt obliged to describe each one 

 as a separate variety. Gray based his splendens on four 

 specimens from Cambodia, and he, too, described each of 

 tliem as a separate variety. Gray's siamensis is a very 

 young specimen, labelled merely " iSiam " ; it is unlike any 

 other form 1 know, in pattern ; until more material shows 

 that it belongs elsewhere, I have left it as a synonym of 

 cinnamomeus. Hence it is evident that the red squirrel of 

 Cambodia varies enormously, but I have failed to detect any 

 intergrading wdth neighbouring forms. Mr. Lyle has sent a 

 long series of a quite similar red squirrel from the upper 

 valley of the Me Nam, and there, curiously enough, the form 

 seems to be " fixed," and to correspond fairly closely with 

 one of Gray's varieties of splendens and also with two 

 specimens in this Collection from Chantaboon and the 

 adjoining island Phu Kok. Finally, both among the southern 

 series and the northern Me Nam series, side by side with the 

 red specimens appear pure white ones, and of the white speci- 

 men from the Me Nam, at any rate, Mr. Lyle records that it 

 has black ej^es. Notwithstanduig this extraordinary tendency 

 to variation, however, in the absence of any proof of inter- 

 gradation with other forms I feel myself justified in treating 

 cinnamomeus as a good species. 



Finally, we have a number of forms inhabiting the 

 Bangkok Ptiver with its feeders the Me Nam and the Me Ping. 



