TUPAIA JAVANICA. 



Eastern Archipelago, where these animals are found, is distinguished by a parti- 

 cular epithet. Thus two small animals, which, according to our classification, belong 

 to the genus which has been above described, are denominated Tupai Press and 

 TuPAi Tana; while several other animals, belonging to the genus Sciurus, are 

 denominated Tupai Jinjang, Tupai Tankrawa, &c. The generic name placed 

 at the head of this article, was first proposed in the Catalogue of a Zoological Col- 

 lection made in Sumatra by Sir T. Stamford Raffles, and published in the thir- 

 teenth Volume of the Transactions of the Lin nean Society of London. It is a simple 

 modification of the Malayan term Tupai ; and from the comprehensive manner in 

 which this is used by the natives of the Islands of the Eastern Archipelago, it 

 may claim a place in our systems, perhaps with more propriety than many names 

 borrowed from the languages of the countries where the animals to which they are 

 applied, are indigenous. Three species of Tupaia have hitherto been discovered ; 

 two of these are natives of Sumatra, Penang, and Singa-pura, while the third 

 has been found exchisively in Java, where it is distinguished by the name of 



BaNGSRING, or SiNSRING. 



The generic description above detailed, exhibits accurately the characters of the 

 Tupaia javanica, of which two very perfect specimens are contained in the Collections 

 of the Honourable East India Company. Of each of the two other species, individuals 

 in a good state of preservation were sent by Sir Stamford Raffles to Sir Everard 

 Home, for the Royal College of Surgeons ; and through the liberality of the Board 

 of Curators of that noble Institution, I have been enabled to give a figure and 

 description of the Tupaia Tana, in this Number of the Zoological Researches, and 

 to consult and compare the peculiar characters of the Tupaia ferruginea. In my 

 inquiries relating to this genus, I have therefore enjoyed the advantage of having 

 before me all the species that have hitherto been discovered ; and before I proceed 

 to the description of the Tupaia javanica, I shall enumerate concisely those characters 

 in which they all agree. These shew themselves, first, in the same number and 

 disposition of the front and canine teeth, as well as of the grinders, and in the 

 length and conical form of the rostrum, which being obtuse, and without that 

 proboscoidal elongation that exists in Sorex, Mygale, and the rest of the Insectivores 

 of Cuvier, to which they are allied in the system of dentition, affords a clear dis- 

 tinctive character. These animals further closely resemble each other in the promi- 

 nence of their eyes, in the form of their ears, in the number and disposition of their 

 toes and claws, in the general contour of their body, fitted for great agility, in the 

 quality of their fur or hairy covering, in the proportional length and form of their 

 tail, and in certain peculiarities in the distribution of colours and distinctive 

 marks. 



