SCIURUS PLANTANI. 



and states that it is common in Java and Prince's Island, and called by the Malays^ 

 Ba-djing. It does not appear whence Mr. Pennant's information was obtained ; but 

 the name is spelled according to the orthography used in the Dutch language. His 

 description, although concise, distinctly characterizes our animal. In the year 1784, 

 Captain Joli. Brandes, who visited Batavia, in a Swedish vessel, had an opportunity 

 of examining the Javanese Bajing ; and a description of it, illustrated by a plain 

 engraving, was published, from his communications in the XXIId Volume of the 

 Swedish Transactions, by Mr. S I. Ljung. The name of Sciurus Plantani was 

 now applied to it, which, although perhaps objectionable in its formation, has been 

 preserved ; but the publication of a Drawing, from the specimens in the Honourable 

 East India Company's Museum, in which the colours are accurately exhibited, has 

 not been rendered useless by Captain Brandes' figure, which in this country can 

 rarely be consulted. Boddaert, about the same period, described the Plantane Squirrel, 

 from Mr. Pennant's materials, in his Elenchus Animalium, and named it Sciurus 

 notatus. 



The next notice of our animal is given in the Catalogue of the Museum of 

 Paris, by M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, from specimens collected in Java by M. Leschenault 

 de Latour. It here receives the name of hilineatus; but as the sides are marked with 

 a single line, it conveys an erroneous idea of our animal, when compared with the 

 Sc. bivittatus, which has two lines on each side. I have therefore preferred the 

 name of M. Ljung, as the most ancient, and as recording the name first employed by 

 Mr. Pennant. 



The Sciurus Plantani was one of the first quadrupeds which I observed in Java, 

 and a concise notice of it was contained in a Manuscript Catalogue of a Zoological 

 Collection, which was sent to England in the year 1812. Several other Sciuri from 

 that Island are now arranged in the Museum of the Company, together with the 

 species forwarded from Sumatra by Sir Stamford Raffles. To these the discoveries of 

 Dr. George Finlayson, who accompanied John Crawfurd, Esq. in his mission to Siam, 

 in this genvis, have recently been added. These materials afford several new species 

 to the systematic Catalogues ; and the comparisons connected with the examination 

 of them, have led me to a general review of the Indian Sciuri. Several of these are 

 illustrated by the manuscript remarks, and by the drawings of Dr. Francis Hamilton, 

 which are deposited in the East India Company's Library, the free use of which 

 he has, with the most gentlemanly liberality, afforded to me. 



The result of my inquiries will appear after the description of the SciuruiS 



