1875.] MR. E.R. ALSTON ON THE GENUS ANOMALURUS. 89 
having similar habits, climbing lofty trees, and passing by a great 
sailing bound from the summit to another stem; in ascending a tree 
the caudal scales are pressed against the trunk and thus serve as 
“‘climbing-irons.” But Mr. Waterhouse pointed out, in his original 
description, that the genus differs not only from the Flying Squirrels, 
but from all the other Sciwride, in many important characters of 
the skull and dentition—notably in the large size of the infraorbital 
opening, the almost entire absence of postorbital processes, the 
contraction and emargination of the bony palate, and the number and 
appearance of the grinding-teeth. 
Since its discovery, zoologists have held very various views as to 
the true affinities of the Anomalure. Mr. Waterhouse regarded it 
as an aberrant Squirrel, showing an approach to the Dormice*. 
Dr. Gray took the same view, placing it at the head of the Sciurina, 
immediately following the Myoainat. Temminck treated Anomal- 
urus as a subgenus of Pteromys, and first gave some account of 
the skeletont, which was more fully described by Gervais$, and 
figured in the posthumous part of De Blainville’s ‘ Ostéographie ’ |]. 
According to the views which M. Gervais then held, the subfamily 
Anomulurina had_ uno real relationship to the Squirrels, but should 
be ranked among the Hystricide, next to Capromyna—an arrange- 
ment to which Giebel4] and Burmeister** gave their adherence. 
Brandt first placed the Anomalures as the third tribe of his family 
Sciuroides, under the name of Anomaluri seu Pteromyoxosciuri, as 
indicating their relationshipt++, but subsequently proposed another 
classification, in which they formed the first subfamily, named 
Anomalurini seu Sciuri Lemuriformes, as showing an-approach to 
the Lemurs, through Galeopithecus, in the structure of their toes 
and clawst{. M. Gervais has since withdrawn from his first position 
as to the hystricine affinities of the animal, but, still holding that it 
is not a Squirrel, unites it with the Dormice and the miocene 
genera Theridomys and Archeéomys in his “famille des Myoxidés’’§§. 
In this he has been followed by Dr. Fitzinger||||. Prof. Lilljeborg 
placed Anomalurina asa subfamily of Sciuride showing an approach 
to the Hystricomorpha of Brandt 44]; and more recently he retains 
this arrangement, but suggests that the form should probably rank 
as a distinct family***. This last view is shared by Dr. Gill, who 
makes the Anomaluride a family equal in value to the Sciurida, and 
places it between the latter and the Haploodontide +++. 
* Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. x. p. 202 (1842). 
+ List Mamm. Brit. Mus. p. 133 (1843). 
t Esquisses Zoologiques, pp. 143-146 (1853). 
§ Ann. Scien. Nat. (3° sér.) xx. pp. 238-246, pl. xiii. (1853). 
|| Atlas, iv. Sczwrus, pl. i. (1855). G Allgemeine Zoologie, p. 485 (1854). 
** Thiere Braziliens, Th. i. p. 341 (1854). 
tt Mém. de l’Ac. St. Pétersb. (6° sér.), Sc. Nat. vii. pp. 298, 299 (1855). 
tt Compt. Rend. Ac. Scien. xliii. pp. 189-143 (1856). 
§§ Zoologie et Paléontologie Frangaises (2° ed.) pp. 27-380 (1859). 
||| Sitzungsb. Ak, Wissensch. Wien, lv. (erste Abth.) p. 511 (1867). 
4/4] Syst. Gifv. de Gnagande Dagedjuren, pp. 38, 40 (1866). 
*** Sveriges och Norges Ryggradsdjur, i. p. 383 (1874). 
ttt Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, xi. p. 21 (1874). 
