SCIUEUS. 217 



large Javan squirrel that Miiller and Schlegel went so far as to state, that were 

 it not that Sparrmann insisted upon the fact that his specimen was caught alive 

 in Java, they would sooner have applied his description to S. hippurus than to 

 S. bicolor, and they thought that tliis view of the question was rather supported 

 hy the sketch sent by Linnseus ; but more extended research has shown that the 

 large squirrel of Java not unfrequently merits the term hicolor, and that it is 

 distinguished by its ears being untufted, whereas the larger black squirrel with the 

 yellow under parts, found from the Himalaya to Borneo, has its ears generally 

 tufted. I have examined the types of S. alUceps, Desm., >S'. leschenauUii, Desm., 

 S. auriventer, Is. Geoff. St. HiL, S. hypoleucus, Horsfd., S. hicolor var. sondaica, 

 Horsfd., and S. ephippium, M. and S., and an extensive series of squirrels belonging 

 to these types and to many intermediate forms, and a careful consideration of these 

 materials has led me to regard them only as varieties of one species, depending 

 chiefly on local circumstances, the right understanding of which is probably com- 

 plicated by differences in age and seasonal changes of fur. 



The Javan forms referable to S. leschenauUii, S. albiceps, and S. javensis. 

 are very variable. The general colour of the fur on the upper parts is brown, 

 and in some this colour extends on to the head, which is nearly concolorous 

 with the body ; but the head exhibits many shades of brown, passing even into 

 yellowish- grey, in which condition it is S. albiceps, whereas in others it may be 

 only tinged with greyish-brown. In some its upper surface is dark brown, and 

 the sides of the head and face are greyish-yellow. The fur of the upper parts, 

 although described as reddish or maroon-brown, is in some squirrels broadly 

 tipped with yellowish-brown or even pale yellow,— so much so, that the general 

 colour is of that tint, except on the hind quarters, which are usually dark, almost 

 blackish-brown, frequently, however, grizzled with pale-yellowish ; the feet, ante- 

 rior and posterior, being generally deep black. The sides of the neck, shoulder, 

 and outside of fore and hind limbs are always dark maroon or blackish-brown. 

 On the radial portion of the fore limb, the outer, brown surfaces are more or less 

 yellow- grizzled, but the dark colour is, at the same time, definitely marked, and 

 there is no approach to the formation of the encircling white of S. macrourus. 

 The under parts from the cliin to the vent, and the inside and front of the 

 fore limbs, are yellowish, or orange-white of various degrees of intensity. The 

 ears are moderately sized, rounded anteriorly, nearly straight behind, but not tufted. 

 The tail at the base is usually blackish, or brownish-black, slightly grizzled, but 

 the remainder is so broadly tipped with yellow that this is the prevailing colour, 

 although the basal two-tliirds of the hairs are, in general, dark brown, or black. 

 In one Javan specimen the tip of the tail is black. The middle of the under, 

 divided surface, owing to the bases of the hairs being exposed, is brown, the outer 

 portion yellow. In two Sumatran animals, the heads are dark brownish-black on 

 the vertex, and only a Httle paler before the eyes ; and the croup, shoulders, and 

 outside of the fore Hmbs and the thighs are blackish- maroon ; the body behind the 

 shoulders to the root of the tail being pahsh-rufous, or yellowish-brown. The tail 



D 2 



