68 MR. 0. THOMAS ON THE MAMMALS OF [Jan. 19, 
15. Scrurus caniceps, Gray. 
a, 6b. Moulmein. ec. Kankaryit, 13/1/77. d, e. Thoungyeen 
River, 9 and 10/77 (Bingham). f, g. Thoungyah, 16/1/77 
(Davison), 10/10/78 (Darling). h. Myawadi, 2/10/77 
(Bingham). i. Tavoy, 16/3/78. j-l. Bankasun, 6/77 
(S. phayrii, Bly.). m, n. Pahpoon, W. Tenasserim. 0. 
Thatone, 23/11/77. 
This fine series, with the seven Malayan specimens from Kussoom, 
(27/5/79), Taroar (12/2/79), Poongah (8/79), and Salanga (2 and 
3/79), collected by Darling, form an invaluable addition to the 
material for making out the relations, variation, and distribution of 
this troublesome species and its allies. fl 
Dr. Anderson, although he gives separate headingsin his monograph 
to S. pygerythrus, caniceps, phayret, blanfordi, and griseimanus, 
states that he believes that they are all closely related to one another 
and should not perhaps be specifically separated. 
On Jaying out, arranged as it were on an imaginary map, the 
whole available series of skins, 70 in number’, belonging to the above 
species, one is able to make out five recognizable forms grading into 
each other in various degrees, of which two occur in North Tenas- 
serim, one in Peou and Upper Burma, another in Cambodja and 
Cochin China, and the fifth in S. Tenasserim and N. Malaysia; but 
anything more complicated than their inter-relations it is hard to 
conceive, and they seem to be only definable by a free use of trino- 
mial nomenclature. 
As the easiest method of explaining their relationships I will 
attempt to trace out the history of S. caniceps, which appears to 
have been something as follows :— 
The original of the species, occurring about the centre of the 
present range, would be such an animal as summer non-breeding 
specimens of the true S. caniceps of N. Tenasserim now are, viz. 
grizzled yellowish grey above and grey below, the sides of the neck 
and the sides of the belly being more or less tinged with yellow (85. 
8. 1.1777). The struggle for existence then necessitated a richer 
ornamentation, at least in the breeding-season, and this was accom- 
plished in various ways in different parts of the animals’ range. 
North-western specimens, those of Burma and Pegu, became rich 
yellow underneath (S. pygerythrus, 81. 12. 2. 7), and eastern ones, 
in Cambodja &e., a duller yellow below, with whitish feet (S. grisei- 
manus, 78. 6. 17, 29), both forms having occasionally, presumably 
by atavism, ordinary grey-bellied specimens, e. g. 81. 12. 2. 9 from 
Pegu and 62. 8. 16.4 from Laos, Southwards, beginning about 
at Tavoy, and reaching down to Malacca, the yellow tinge of 
the sides of the neck and belly were replaced by rich orange-red, 
1 Of these, 22 belong to the Hume, 25 to the old Museum collection, and 23 
have been kindly lent to me by Mr. Blanford out of his own collection. 
2 These numbers are those of the registers in the Natural History Museum, 
and will always identify the particular phase of fur referred to. 
