SCIURUS PLANTANI. 



Of all the quadrupeds found in Java, the Bajing is perhaps the most abundant. 

 It inhabits both the sea-coast, and those districts of the interior that are but httle 

 elevated above the level of the ocean. All these are very productive of the Plantane 

 or Banana, from resorting to which Mr. Pennant has taken his specific name, and 

 he describes it as clattering over the dried leaves with vast noise. It is also 

 found on the Tamarind tree, and on fruit-trees in general ; but it is more particularly 

 notorious on account of the injury which it occasions to the Cocoa-nut tree. The 

 pursuit and destruction of the Bajing become a necessary task to the natives, as the 

 preservation of fruits in general, and particularly of the Cocoa-nut, in a great 

 measure depends on it. This tree, in many parts of the Island, affords the principal 

 reA'^enue to the peasants and proprietors of plantations, and, next to rice, is, in this 

 climate, perhaps the most useful production of the vegetable kingdom. The enu- 

 meration of its various uses, both in the diet and in the domestic economy of the 

 natives, would afford matter for an extensive essay. The natives are therefore 

 frequently found engaged in the chace of the Bajing ; and the remains of it are 

 sometimes exhibited in numerous skins suspended about their dwellings. The 

 diminution of the numbers of the Gray Squirrel, in America, was in former times 

 thought worthy of the notice of Government, and a small premium was paid for 

 each skin : a similar measure might be recommended in Java, for the protection of 

 the peasant and landholder. The Sciurus Plantani increases perhaps more rapidly 

 than Squirrels in northern climates. Its food, in a temperate and fertile region, is 

 always abundant, and its numbers aie never checked by the frosts of a severe winter. 



The Sciurus Plantani has the manners of Squirrels in general ; it lives on trees, 

 and constructs, as in other countries, a simple nest, with various vegetable materials; 

 but the Cocoa-nut tree, which, by its fruit, attracts our animal, rarely affords it a 

 permanent residence, as the constant visits of the natives to the summit, for the 

 collection of the fruit, enable them to dislodge this injurious intruder. The Bajing 

 is capable of the same degree of domestication with most other Squirrels : it is often 

 found perfectly tamed, both at liberty and confined in cages, in the dwellings of 

 native or European residents in Java. 



In the peculiarities of its organization, the Bajing agi-ees with other Sciuri. 

 The form of the head, the structure of the teeth, and the number and character of 

 the toes, present nothing peculiar. The tail has the form of a compressed cylinder ; 

 but the hairs are shorter, and spread less to the sides, than in the European, and 

 in several American Squirrels. The peculiar structure of the tail, according to 

 which M. Desmarest has divided this genus into two sections, has been exhibited in 

 the description of the Sciurus insignis. The external marks on the body afford 



