SCIUEUS. 251 



stated, their skulls are in no way separable, whereas they are very distinct from the 

 skull of S. lokriah, which is not so closely allied to S. lokroides, as would at first 

 be supposed from a cursory examination ; neither is S. lokriah subject to much 

 variation. It is much more richly coloured than S. lokroides, with no rufous even 

 on the thighs, and with generally a tuft of .pure white hairs behind the ear, by 

 which it can be recognised, as it occurs in twenty instances out of twenty-five, 

 and even when absent the hairs in that locality have a paler colour. As this 

 whitish tuft Hes backwards, it is only seen when the ear is carefully examined. 

 Besides these external distinctions, the two forms are markedly separated, as I have 

 said, by the forms of their skulls. 



The pelage of S. lokriah is deep rich rather ferruginous olive-brown, soft and 

 silky ; the under parts from the chin to the vent are rich orange, paler on the chin 

 and throat, but sometimes pale yellow, restricted to the mesial line. The tail 

 appears to be rather shorter than in S. lokroides, and the banding of the hair 

 is much coarser and the paler bands are orange instead of yellow, but the dis- 

 tinguishing feature is the great breadth of the apical black band, which is, 

 however, generally tipped orange or white; the hue of the tail being blackish, 

 washed either with yellow or white, most generally the latter. In some, the 

 annuli are very obscure, and the tail has an orange brownish hue ; in others, owing 

 to the distichous arrangement of the hairs, the mesial line of the under surface of 

 the tail is more or less obscurely banded orange and black, with a blackish margin 

 due to the broad terminal band. 



In the Eastern Naga hills, Assam, there is a squirrel which agrees with S. lokriah, 

 except that the under parts, instead of being orange-red, are bluish-grey, and thus 

 may be indicated as var. tephrogaster. It has no white spot behind the ears, but its 

 skull agrees with the skull of S. lokriah. 



Dr. Gray included under 8. lokriah a squirrel from Singapore which has a very 

 strong external resemblance to it, with a rather bright orange belly and the upper 

 fur and taU much as in S. lokriah, but it has longer and more pointed ears, with 

 no white ear-tufts, and a skull remarkably distinct from S. lokriah, and which 

 may probably prove to be S. chinensis. 



This species has been obtained in Nepal, the Sikkim Himalaya, and the 

 Naga hills, Assam; but I notice that Blyth, in his recent Catalogue of the 

 Mammals and Birds of Burma, states that it also inhabits the Khasia hills 

 and those of Arracan. 



SciURUS LEUCOMUS, Mliller & Schlegel. 



Sciums leucomns, Miiller und Schlegel, Verhandl. 1839-4'i, p. 87; Gray, Ann. and Mag*. Nat. 

 Hist. vol. XX. 1867, p. 272. 



This is an olive-brown squirrel, about the size of S. lokroides, the hair being 

 grizzled or annulated in the usual way, but the bands are pale, especially on the 



