NO. 5 MAMMALS OF PANAMA GOLDMAN 1 37 



Panama, it seems best to treat it for the present as a subspecies 

 of S. variegatoides. 1 



Sclater (1856, p. 139) evidently referred to this species in a list 

 of mammals collected by Bridges in Chiriqui and published more 

 than ten years before the original description of Sciurus melania, 

 based on Costa Rican material, appeared. Regarding the squirrel, 

 which was referred to the genus Sciurus, but the species unnamed, 

 he says: "A black species, difficult to distinguish. Mr. Bridges 

 states that it is common in the immediate vicinity of the town of 

 David, and between that and the port of Boca Chica." 



Twenty-one specimens, including adults and young of both sexes 

 collected by W. W. Brown, Jr., at Divala, Bugaba, and Boquete were 

 recorded by Bangs (1902, p. 22) who says: "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 Bugaba (600 feet) and Divala, it is common 

 and generally distributed in suitable places." 



That this squirrel is not confined to the mainland is shown by 

 Thomas (1903a, p. 40) who records specimens collected by J. H. 

 Batty on Sevilla, Insoleta, Cebaco, and Brava, all small islands off 

 the coast of the southwestern part of the republic. Ten specimens 

 taken by the same collector at Boqueron for the American Museum 

 of Natural History are recorded by Allen (1904, p. 66). The known 

 general range of the animal is, therefore, the coastal plains and 

 islands, and the basal mountain slopes on the Pacific side in western 

 Panama and adjacent parts of Costa Rica. 



Specimens examined: Bugaba, 5*; Boqueron, 17*; Boquete, I s ; 

 Divala, 13.' 



Subgenus GUERLINGUETUS Gray 

 SCIURUS HOFFMANNI CHIRIQUENSIS Bangs 4 

 Chiriqui Squirrel 

 Sciurus (Guerlinguetus) aestuans chiriquensis Bangs, Bull. Mus. Comp. 

 Zool., Vol. 39, No. 2, p. 22, April, 1902. Type from Divala, Chiriqui, 

 Panama. 



Hoffmann's squirrel is somewhat similar to the subspecies of 

 Sciurus gerrardi in general external appearance ; the tail, however, 



1 For discussion of the status of this species see Nelson, Proc. Wash. Acad. 

 Sci., Vol. 1, p. 74, 1899, and Bangs (1902, p. 22 and 1906, p. 212). 



2 Collection Mus. Comp. Zool. 



* Collection Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. 



* Allen (1915, p. 212) in reviewing the South American squirrels has erected 

 several new genera including Mesosciurus, with Sciurus hoffmanni as type. 

 Some of these genera appear to be based on slight characters and I am not 

 convinced of the desirability of such divisions. 



