288 RODENTIA. 



a variation depending on a perpetuation, so to speak, of a character of youth. This 

 supposition is favoured by the circumstance that the majority of flying squirrels 

 referable to P. caniceps which have come under my observation have been young, 

 and by the additional fact that there are, as it were, intermediate forms between it 

 and P. alhwenter in which the head is greyer than it generally is in the latter 

 species, which is, as a rule, more or less distinguished by a certain amount of grey 

 about the cheeks. But on a more critical examination of P. caniceps^ it appears to 

 me, judging from Hodgson's types of the species, that it has larger ears, and if this 

 should prove to be a persistent character, then the grey head and the chestnut speck 

 above and below the eye and the bright chestnut tuft behind the ears assume a 

 specific importance which they would not otherwise have. But there is no descrip- 

 tion from life, or comparison of the ears of these two supposed species, and as my 

 observation is founded on the stuffed specimens in the National Collection, I do not 

 attach any great importance to it, but only mention it that it may be proved or dis- 

 proved by naturalists who have the opportunity to examine the two forms in life. 

 As the materials at present at our disposal are insufficient either to establish or dis- 

 prove the existence of these two species, I tentatively accept each. 



The animal is as large as P. magnificus, but the fur is much softer and denser 

 than in that species and rather longer. It is about one inch and three quarters long, 

 and in the first inch of its length it is slaty- grey and wavy ; it then passes for 

 about two-tenths of its length into brown, and then into reddish-bay, each hair 

 generally ending in a narrow, dark-brown tip. Longer hairs are profusely scattered 

 through the fur, and in these the slaty base passes into black instead of brown, and 

 some of them have a sub-apical white band. The general colour of the upper parts 

 is thus a rich reddish-bay, which is very glossy in reflected lights, and rather redder 

 on the outside of the legs. The head is iron-grey, with longer black interspersed 

 hairs, and the cheeks also are greyish ; above and below the eye there is either a 

 rich orange-brown spot, or a ring of that colour encircling that organ; and a 

 similarly coloured tuft of hairs, but brighter, occurs at the base of the ears, behind 

 their posterior angle. On the outer half of the membrane, the dark-brown tips 

 to the hairs all but disappear, and the red-bay band increases in breadth and intensity, 

 becoming rich orange-red on the margin of the parachute. The feet are also orange- 

 red. The tail is bushy and only very faintly distichous. It is greyish at its base, 

 succeeded by dusky orange, followed by a broad black band which is generally 

 terminal, yet not unfrequently tipped with rusty brown. The orange is paler in 

 the young, but more prevalent. The chin is generally blackish, and the throat is 

 whitish, and all the under parts reddish or rather decided orange-red. 



The body measures 14 inches, according to Hodgson. 



And the tail ...... 15 „ „ „ 



Gray's specimen was young, the body being only 9 inches and the tail 8J inches. 



The skull has a less expanded interorbital region then P. magnificus, and a rather 

 longer and narrower muzzle. The frontal depression is much deeper in some tlian 



