230 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXIV. 



Habitat. — Southern part of Upper Chindwin, on West bank. 

 Type series from Tatkon, opposite Kindat. Alt. 250'. One specimen 

 also from Ahlaw, Kabaw Valley. Alt. 300'. 



Ty-pe. — Adult male. B. M. No. 15.5.5.79. Original number 5,492. 

 Collected 26tli June 1914. Fourteen specimens. 



In two specimens out of fourteen the whitening of the middle 

 portion of the tail is less conspicuous, the white being overlaid with 

 grey, but even in these there is more white present than in the 

 allied forms. 



This striking squirrel, which is readily distinguishable by the 

 unique marking of its tail, we have named in honour of Mr. 

 Norman B. Kinnear, the Curator of the Society's Museum in Bom- 

 bay, to whose hearty co-operation much of the success of the Sur- 

 vey is due. 



Gallosciurus sladeni, Anderson. 



It is among the members of the C. sladeni group that the 

 most wonderful results have been attained by Messrs. Shortridge and 

 Macmillan as they collected no less than 180 specimens belonging to 

 seven distinguishable subspecies, all the way down from Hkamti 

 in the North of Upper Chindwin to Yin in Lower Chindwin, these 

 subspecies occurring in succession down the East bank of the river, 

 to which this group is confined. 



From what we already know, this C. sladeni group would appear 

 to be spread all over the area between the Upper Irrawaddy and 

 the Chindwin, but whether it extends to the East of the former 

 partly remains to be seen, and partly depends on the value we 

 assign to the characters distinguishing it from species beyond this 

 area. For it is extraordinarily difficult to decide which forms 

 should be reckoned as "species" and which as "subspecies," 

 deeper and more essential characters being almost non-existent, 

 while the colour-characters — locally constant and therefore 

 demanding some form of technical name — show an almost un- 

 limited degree of intergradation. 



Already from the present series it is evident that the whitish 

 forms referred to C. haringtoni intergrade with the greyish ones re- 

 presenting G. sladeni, so that we have no alternative but to con- 

 sider the whole lot as one species with a considerable number of 

 local subspecies. Thomas had already sj)oken of the essential re- 

 lationship of the two forms to one another, and we are not now 

 surprised to find that they intergrade. 



It is curious to note that while there is a considerable local 

 constancy in general colour, certain characters wh^.ch have been 

 used to distinguish subspecies prove to be entirely inconstant. 

 This is notably the case with the black line which in many speci- 

 mens runs along the side of the body and along the forearms. 



