157 



ON TWO NEW SQUIRRELS FROM THE 

 INNER GULF OF SIAM. 



♦• ♦ ♦ 



By C. Boden Kloss, F.Z.S. 



in January 1915 I paid a short visit to Koh Si Cliang ^ in the 

 inner (rulf of Siam and at its conclusion (having uo time to go on 

 myself to the next island) sent my collectors to Koh Phai. 



Koh Si Chang has been regarded of late as the type locality of 

 Sciuriis finlaysoni, but in looking thi'ough the history of that name it 

 ■?jecomes evident that this is a mistaken view and that it applies to the 

 white squirrel of the Siamese mainland. 



Sciurus finlaysoni was described by Ilorsfield in 1824 (ZoologimJ 

 llesearches in Java) from specimens collected by Dr. George Finlayson, 

 the naturalist who accompanied Crawford in his mission to Siam and 

 Cambodia. It is evident that Horsfield, when erecting the species, had 

 in mind the mainland animal, for he says that it is BufTon's " Ecuriel 

 blanc de Siam " which was seen at Lonpeen, a village situated in the 

 extensive forests of Siam, by P. Tachard in his travels. The account 

 of the species closes with an extract from Finlayson's manuscript 

 describing the v/hite squirrel which ends "one of the specimens was 

 shot by Lieut. Rutherford on the Islands called Sichang in the Gulf of 

 Siam." It is once more obvious that Finlayson, too, was dealing with 

 the mainland animal and that this reference to the island example was 

 merely a detail as to extent of range. 



Farther Horsfield, in the Catalogue of the Mautni'tli'i i,t. the Museum 

 of the East India Comimny, 1<%1, again gives the locality of n specimen 

 of S. finlaysoni as Siam, while Anderson who personally studied all the 

 types of what he regarded as varieties of Sciurus ferrugineus states 

 {Zooloijical L'esearck in Yunnan, p. 24 1) that " the tyt)e of /S'. finlaysoni 

 was obtained in Siam by Dr. Finlayson and another was procured by 

 the same traveller in Sichang Id." 



*Koli (SiaHK'«;(')=M.ii.a. 



