SCIUIMJS. 237 



this Assam form, he remarks of the young,— a fact which I have also ohserved,— that 

 it not unfreqnently has a black area on the tail at some little distance from its base, 

 the black passing more or less upwards and forming a dark, mesial line, as described 

 by Pallas. This squirrel of Blyth's appears to be no other than the young of his 

 S. erythrogaster which came from nearly the same locality, viz., from Munipore — 

 a statement which I make after carefully comparing the types. 



Blyth ^ describes S. erythrogaster as being of the size of the British squirrel, or 

 a little larger, and having a much longer tail. The entire upper surface is glistening, 

 deep reddish-black, minutely grizzled with light fulvous or yellowish-brown, each 

 hair having thus two annulations ; the whole under parts from the throat, and 

 the inside of the limbs, rather dark, but not intense, reddish-maroon ; feet black, 

 with little trace of annulation ; the fulvous predominating most about the head ; 

 tail similar to the back from the basal third, then gradually less grizzled, and the 

 terminal half black, almost without grizzling, moderately bushy ; whiskers black ; 

 ears not pencilled. Length nine or ten inches ; the tail without its hair as much 

 more and with it upwards of two inches additional; tarsus to the end of the 

 claw of longest toe, two inches and a quarter. 



Blyth^ described another squirrel from the Khasia hills and the mountains of 

 Lower Assam, under the name of S. erythrceus, Pallas. M'Clelland and Horsfield, 

 however, considered it to be S. Mppurus, Is. Geoff., but it is duller and more 

 bleached above, the ferruginous hue of the belly contrasting abruptly with the sides 

 of the body, whereas in S. Mppurus the sides are so rufous that the contrast is much 

 less decided ; moreover, S. Mppurus does not appear to extend so far north. The 

 ears are bright rufous, and the terminal two-tliirds or more of the tail are nearly of 

 the same colour as the belly, the tip generally being paler. There is also more 

 or less rufous about the muzzle, extending sometimes wholly or partly over the 

 crown, and the end of the tail is occasionally blackish. Gray's var. h from Bhutan 

 is undoubtedly the species. 



The specimens in the British Museum referred by Dr. Gray first to S. ery- 

 th'cBus, Pallas, and afterwards to S. erythrogaster, Blyth, are all distinguished by 

 having the under parts uniformly rich maroon-chestnut, without any tendency to 

 form a mesial ventral line, but occasionally a punctulated ventral line is developed 

 in this species. The rufous extends over the chest and throat in all except a 

 specimen said to be from Bhutan, in which the throat and chest are grizzled like 

 the sides of the neck. This specimen, however, has the peculiarity noticed by 

 Blyth, that the chin and face, between and anterior to the eyes, is not rufous, 

 neither are the ears. The feet in all are dark blackish-brown. The upper fur is 

 rich, dark olive-brown in the majority ; but in two specimens, one from the Garo 

 hills and another from Samagooting, Assam, the fur is pale olive-brown, whereas 

 the typical squh-rels from Munipore are always much darker. The tail is subject to 

 considerable variation in its colouring, but even in squirrels in which it is brilliant 



^ Vol. xi. (1842), No. 130, p. 970. 2 Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1855, vol. svi. p. 473. 



