346 ME. OLDFIELD THOMAS ON [NoV. 28, 



c?. 9, 11, 12, 13. $. 8, 14, 15,16, 17, 18, 19,20. Jozankei, 

 ear Sapporo, Hokkaido. 



The ISToboribetsu and Aoyama specimens are in the winter, and 

 the Jozankei specimens in the summer pelage. 



In Major Bai-rett-Hamilton's paper * on the subspecies of 

 Sciurus vulgaris, those from the Far East, from Korea and Hokkaido, 

 are assigned to S. v. ccdotns Hodgs. t, whose typical locality is the 

 high region of Central Asia. But the valuable series obtained by 

 Mr. Anderson indicates that they are sufficiently different to have 

 a subspecific name of their own. For while the type of calotus 

 and other specimens from the Altai are, in winter pelage, a clear 

 deep grey above without rufous suffusion, the whole of the 

 Hokkaido examples are strongly suffused along the head, dorsal 

 area, and base of the tail with a colour between " Mars-brown " 

 and " vinaceous-cinnamon " of Ridgway, though paler than either. 

 Sides clearer and more silvery grey, especially on two patches on 

 each side, behind the shoulders and in front of the hips. Throat, 

 chest, and belly pure sharply defined white, the hairs white to 

 their roots. Ear-tufts, hands, and feet blackish, more or less 

 speckled with fulvous. Tail broadly washed with black, the basal 

 part of the hairs more or less greyish or fulvous. 



In summer pelage the ground-colour (apart from melanism) is 

 dull reddish brown, with dark red ears and feet, and perhaps 

 sometimes a moi-e or less red- washed tail. But every specimen is 

 to a certain degree affected with melanism, and the only one that 

 has the body, ears, feet, and proximal half of tail red, also has the 

 terminal half of the latter organ blackish, as the whole of it is in 

 the majority of specimens. 



Dimensions of the type, measui-ed in the flesh : — 



Head and body 244 mm. ; tail 175 ; hind foot (s. u.) 60 ; ear 34. 



Skull — greatest length 54 ; basilar length 43. 



Hcd). Hokkaido. Type from Aoyama. 



Type. Adult male in winter pelage J. B.M. No. 6.1.4.128. 

 Original number 98. Collected 9 November, 1904. 



Two specimens from Soul, Korea, presented by Mr. C. W. 

 Campbell, and killed in January 1889, appear to be quite similar 

 to the Hokkaido Squirrel. 



This Eastern form of *S'. vulgaris is no doubt most closely related 

 to S. V. calotus, but may be distinguished by the rufous suffusion 

 along its dorsal area. This produces, at least in the winter coat, 

 a considerable resemblance to the Scandinavian Squirrel, but from 

 that animal it is readily distinguished by its dark ear-tufts and 

 feet, and by the sharp definition and complete whiteness of the 

 colour of the under surface. 



Tliis Squiri'el is of course the Sciurus varius of the ' Fauna 



* P. Z. S. 1899, p. 3. 



t Iftostela (?) calotus Hodgs. Calc. Jouni. N. H. ii. p. 221 (1842). 



j The hands and feet of the type have some of the i-ed of the summer coat still 

 on them, and this specimen is not, as I at first thought, an exception to the rule 

 that the Hokkaido Squirrel has dark feet in the winter pelage. 



