THE LARGE INDIAN SQUIRREL, " •■ 303 



The following measurements in inches of four females obtained east 

 of Trevandrum in Travancore were given to me some years ago by Mr. 

 F. W. Bourdillon : — 



No. 1. No. 2. No 3, No. 4. 



Head and body ... 16*5 16*5 15*5 16 



Tail ... 20-5 17*5 18*5 18 



The tail is evidently measured with the hair at the end. Jerdon 

 gives head and body 16 to 18, tail with hair 20 to 21. The measure- 

 ment I quoted in the "Mammalia,' 1 head and body 17, tail 14*5, 

 was given to me, I believe, by Mr. Fairbank, and must have been from 

 an animal with the tail (without hair of course) rather shorter than 

 usual. 



Range. — The forests near the Malabar coast as far north as the 

 Wynaad (perhaps farther, as according to Elliot, this variety occurs in 

 the Southern Mahratta country) ; also some of the other forests of the 

 Madras Presidency. Specimens in the Indian Museum from Tenmalai, 

 South Arcot, belong to this race. A skin in the British Museum from 

 near Amarkantak, the source of the Nerbudda, is intermediate between 

 this race and S. indicus var. bengalensis. 



The name maximus appears to have been published by Schreber 

 according to the dates of the publication of his work for which we are 

 indebted to Mr. Sherborn (P. Z. S., 1891, p. 589) in 1784 on Plate 

 217B. The text appeared in 1785, whilst the specific term malabaricus 

 was only made known by Scopoli in 1786. To use a name like 

 S. indicus var. maximus would be absurd, for this race is no larger than 

 the others, but if specific rank be awarded to the form, Schreber's 

 name ought, I fear, to be used. At the same time this would be ex- 

 tremely inconvenient, because another race was the S. maximus of 

 Jerdon, Anderson and others, and if Indian naturalists prefer to call the 

 Malabar squirrel S. malabaricus I do not think the cause of scientific 

 nomenclature will suffer. 



4. Sciurus indicus var. bengalensis (or S. bengalensis). The Red 

 Bengal Squirrel.* 



Sciurus maximus^ Jerdon, Mam. Ind., p. 166, nee Schreber. 



* Jerdon's name, the "Central Indian Red Squirrel," canuot be used, because the 

 term " Central India" as I have already pointed out in this Journal, now applies to a 

 very different part of India from that for which it Was used by Jerdon. 



