304 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XL 



Chiefly chestnut-red above, but with the rump and tail black, the tip 

 of the latter usually yellowish. Lower parts, feet and band across 

 forehead buff as in other races. Face brownish-red, more or less 

 grizzled with white hairs. Intermediate forms occur between this and 

 S. indicus var. malabaricus. 



Range. — Western Bengal, Orissa, Chutia Nagpur, and the Northern 

 Circars, ranging on the north to the Khargpur Hills near Monghyr 

 and south to Bastar, Jaipur, and the neighbourhood of the Goda\ari. 



Jerdon states that he saw this squirrel at the base of the Pachmari 

 Hills near Seoni, in the Central Provinces. Probably the squirrel there 

 occurring resembles the skin already noticed from Amarkantak. 



I believe this form to be confined on the eastward to the forest 

 country between the Ganges and Godavari, but one cf the allied races 

 has twice been reported to occur beyond these limits to the north-east, 

 first by Hodgson (Journ. As. Soc. Beng., xviii) (1849), p. 775, and P.Z.S. 

 (1855), p. 126, who mentioned the occurrence of S.purpareus (S. indicus) 

 together with S. macruroides (S. bicolor, var.) in the lower region of the 

 Nepal Himalayas ; and, secondly, by Oldfield Thomas, who published a list 

 of Hume's mammalian collections (P.Z.S.,1886, p. 60), including a speci- 

 men of S. indicus from Manipur. The latter locality I accepted in the 

 " Mammalia " of the Fauaa of British India, p. 372, but I ventured to 

 doubt the first. I now feel sceptical regarding both localities, because, 

 so far as it is possible to judge, S. indicus is replaced by S. bicolor 

 throughout the Trans-Gangetic region. S. bicolor is common in Nepal 

 and Sikhim and on both sides of the Assam "V alley. There are several 

 specimens in the Calcutta Museum from the Garo and Naga Hills, and 

 it would be truly extraordinary if the Cis-Gangetic species were found 

 further east in Manipur. 



With regard to the supposed occurrence of S. indicus (S. pur pureus) 

 in the Nepal Terai, the statement by Hodgson above quoted appears at 

 first sight to be supported by the inclusion of the name in the " Cata- 

 logue of the Specimens and Drawings of Mammalia and Birds of Nepal 

 and Thibet" (sic)* presented by Mr. B. H. Hodgson to the British 

 Museum ( 1846 j, p. 22. As is well known, however, several of the mam- 

 malian specimens mentioned in this catalogue were not from Nepal, 

 amongst these Bos frontalis (p. 24) and Panolia eldi (misprinted 



*Hodgson of course always wrote the name Tibet. 



