a2 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
Elasmognathus bairdii Git. 
One fine old adult ¢, Boquete, 5,000 feet, March. 
Sciurus (Echinosciurus) melania (Gray). 
Twenty-one specimens, adults of both sexes, and young, Divala, Bogaba, and 
Boquete, 2,000 feet, November, December, January, and July. 
This fine, large black squirrel, described by Gray in 1867 from Point Burica, 
Costa Rica, was unknown to Nelson when he wrote his Revision of the Squir- 
rels of Mexico and Central America. In a foot-note on page 74 he says: 
‘‘ This may be a valid species or subspecies, but the type was evidently a mel- 
anistic specimen, and in the absence of material I refer it here” (to Sciurus 
adolphei dorsalis (Gray)). The large series collected by Brown shows that 
Gray’s type was not melanistic, and that the animalis a fine distinct species. 
It probably has a very restricted range; so far as I know, it has not been taken 
in Costa Rica, north of the very southern part, bordering Chiriqui, the locality 
of Gray’s type. It is a low land species, and not found high up the Volcan de 
Chiriqui, 2,000 feet being the extreme altitude at which Mr. Brown saw it, and 
but once so high as that. About Bogaba (600 feet) and Divala, it is common 
and generally distributed in suitable places. 
In normal, fresh pelage it is nearly black all over, the back only being a 
dark chocolate. As the pelage becomes shabby from wear, the back and tail 
fade to a dull yellowish brown color, the rest of the animal remaining dull 
black. In many of these faded specimens, fresh hairs appear in patches, and 
these are of the normal, beautiful dark chocolate color. Sciwrus melania is a 
beautiful squirrel, the pelage has a sheen quite peculiar, and the chocolate of 
the back is very rich, an unusual color in mammals. The young are like the 
adults. Fully adult specimens usually measure, total length, 500 ; tail verte- 
bra, 260; hind foot, 63; ear,-30. The very largest have a total length of 
560. 
Sciurus (Guerlinguetus) estuans chiriquensis, subsp. nov. 
Type. — Mus. Comp. Zodl. No. 10,044, ad. &, Divala, Nov. 18, 1900. 
Forty-one specimens, both sexes, young and adult, Divala, Boquete, and 
Volean de Chiriqui, 4,000 to 7,500 feet, and Bogaba, November, December, 
February, March, April, and July. 
Characters. — Very similar to S. estuans hoffmanni Peters from Costa Rica 
in all respects, except a constant, well-marked difference in general coloration. 
The under parts, paler, yellower, less brick-red ; the upper parts more oliva- 
ceous, less bricky-red. A large series of the two forms shows this difference in 
color to be well marked at all seasons. 
