SCIURUS. 225 



Sciurns tennentii, Layard, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng*. vol. xviii. 1849^ p. 600; ibid. vol. xx. 1851, 

 p. 165 j Cat. Mamm. As. Soc. Mus. 1863, p. 100; Kelaart, Prod. Faun. Zeyl. 1852, p. 50. 



Sciurus alUceps,^ Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. xxviii. 1859, p. 287; Cat. Mamm. Mus. As. Soc. 

 1863, p. 100. 



Macroxus [Rukaia] macrourus, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xx. 1867, p. 275 (in part). 



Erom the description given by Eay^ of his Ceylon squirrel, there does not 

 appear to be any doubt that the animal to be hereafter described was the species 

 to which he referred. After him, Pennant re-described and figured the animal, and 

 was followed by Erxleben and Zimmermann, and more particularly by Eorster, who 

 adopted Pennant's name of S. macrourus, although it had been erroneously stated 

 that the tail was twice the length of the body. Boddaert re-described the species 

 as the Ceylon squirrel, but altered the name to ceilonensis, and gave a more correct 

 estimate of the relative proportions of the body and tail, viz., " Cauda longitudine 

 co7^poris.'" Gmelin in the 13th edition of the Syst. Nat. accepted Pennant's name 

 and referred to Schreber's figure, which is a reproduction of Pennant's. Pennant 

 in his 2nd edition of the Indian Zoology extended the distribution to Malabar, and 

 it is mteresting to remark, in connection with this, that Blyth and Jerdon record 

 examples from Travancore, the Nilgiris, and Bangalore. 



The figure given by Pennant does not show the tail to be so long as he makes 

 it to be in his description ; nevertheless, in this error he was followed by Shaw. 

 After this, Desmarest introduced an element of confusion as far as the term macrourus 

 is concerned, for he applied it also to the large, maroon-coloured squirrel of Malabar, 

 first brought to light by Sonnerat, and in this view he was followed by E. Cuvier. 

 Desmarest, however, rectified liis error in his Mammalogie, and distinguished between 

 the two species and reproduced Pennant's figure. 



Is. Geoff. St.-Hilaire also separated the Ceylon form as S. ceylonensis, and 

 Eischer kept it distinct under the name S. macrourus, but erroneously regarded it 

 as the same as the Java squirrel described by Horsfield. 



The Ceylon specimen figm^ed by Blyth ^ (from Dr. R. Templeton of Colombo) 

 measm-ed 2 feet long, of which the tail was half, its hair reaching 1-50 inch further. 

 Colour of the upper parts dull brownish-black, much grizzled with whitish tips on 

 the sides, croup and haunches, and shghtly on the back and shoulders, the croup 

 having numerous bufiy- white hairs intermixed ; basal three-fifths of the tail black, 

 with long, wliite tips to the hairs, and a white, median fine underneath, the rest, or 

 terminal portion, brown, with less conspicuously developed, white tips, except at the 

 very end, where they gradually disappear ; cheeks, under parts and limbs almost 

 pure white, with a shghtly fulvescent tinge ; but there is an abruptly defined, blackish 

 patch on the upper portion of the fore limbs externally, passing upward to the 

 shoulder ; a con^esponding, grizzled patch on the hind limbs continuous with the 

 colom-ing of the croup and haunches ; the toes of all the feet are blackish ; there 

 is also a black patch on the crown of the head, and a few blackish hairs on 



1 This term had been previously applied by Wagner to a Mexican squirrel. Abhandl. Akad. Munschen vol ii • 

 Schreber, pi. ccxxiii, D. > • • > 



= Quad. (1693), p. 215. 3 x. c., p. 869. 



E 2 



