262 RODENTIA. 



The ears are rather large, and their inner surfaces are only very sparsely covered 

 with very short, adpressed hairs, and the backs with short, soft, silky hair. All the 

 under parts are white, very slightly washed here and there with yellowish. The tail 

 is moderately bushy, and all the hairs are annulated with four alternate orange and 

 black bands, the terminal black band being occasionally tipped with white and being 

 as broad as the three remaining bands, so that the tail has a decidedly black tint 

 washed with whitish, the orange bands, however, appearing through the black. 



Blyth calls this a ground squirrel, but it is not so in the sense of being a 

 Tamias^ nor does it appear to be less arboreal in its habits than ;S'. maclellandi or 

 S. palmarum. 



This species ranges southward through Martaban and Tenasserim to Cambodja 

 and Cochin China. 



I have examined the various types indicated in the above synonymy. 



SciUEUS iNSiGNis, P. Cuvicr. 



Macroxtis insignis, F. Cuv. Hist. Nat. des Mammif. Nov. 1821, pi. 223; Lesson, Man. de Zool. 



1827, p. 238 ; Gervais, Mag. de Zool. 1832, pi. xxxii. figs. 5, 8 (skull). 

 Sciurus insignis, Horsfield, Zool. Eesch. in Java (plate) ; Cat. Mamm. E. Ind. Co.^'sMus. 1851, p. 151 ; 



Desmarest, Mamm. 1820, Suppl. p. 544; Fischer, Syn. Mamm. 1829, p. 359; Wagner, Schreber, 



Saugeth. Suppl. vol. iii. 1843, p. 205; Muller und Sehlegel, Verhandl. 1839-44, pp. 87^ 99; 



Gray, List Mamm. B. M. 1843, p. 141; Scliinz, Syn. Mamm. vol. ii. 1845, p. 37. 

 Macroxus {Laria^) insignis, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 1867, vol. xx. p. 276. 



The young of this squirrel is dark brown, with a rather bright rufous tint on 

 the front of the thighs, and, more or less also, on their outsides, and on the shoulder. 

 There are three narrow black streaks from the shoulder converging slightly towards 

 the root of the tail. The under parts and the insides of the fore limbs are white, 

 washed with rufous. The inside of the lower part of the hind leg is dusky and 

 tinted with the previous colour. The feet are dark, unpunctulated brown. The 

 backs of the ears are clad with short hairs. The whiskers are black. The tail is dark 

 brown with some of the hairs having very obscure greyish tips. The fur is very 

 finely punctulated with rich yellow, the tips of the hairs being brown and their 

 basal two-thirds greyish. The hairs of the tail, when pulled asunder, are also seen 

 to be feebly annulated with yellowish-brown and dark brown, the subterminal 

 (basal) ring being of the former colour, and the free end of the hair very broadly 

 blackish-brown, occasionally with a greyish tip. 



In the adult, the sides of the animal are rufous-brown, lightest on the thighs. 

 The area between the black dorsal fines, on the two anterior thirds of the trunk, is 

 much punctulated with yellowish which also extends on to the head. The hinder 

 part of the back is rich red-brown, the under parts are clear meUow white, the insides 

 of the limbs are washed with rufous. 



^ MUllerand Schlegel suggest that as they never heard the term "Lary" applied to this squirrel, as stated by 

 Horsfield, the term perhaps was given in joke by some native, inasmuch as lar ie means to run ! 



