256 O. Thomas — Eupetaurus, a new form of Flying Squirrel. [No. 3, 



VII. — On Eupetaurus, a new form of Flying Squirrel from Kashmir. 



By Oldfield Thomas, British Museum {Natural History). 



[Received August 8th ;— Read Sept. 5th, 1888.] 



(With Plates XXII and XXIII.) 



As long ago as 1877, Mr. W. T. Blanford received, among a set of 

 mammals obtained by Mr. L. Mandelli, the skin of a large flying squirrel 

 belonging evidently to a new form, but in such a bad condition that no 

 scientific description of it could be given, and the skin has therefore 

 remained unnamed until the present time. Precisely the same thing has 

 happened in the case of a skin obviously of the same animal purchased 

 by Mr. R. Lydekker about 1879 from some skin-dealers in Srinagar, 

 Kashmir, and said to be from the Astor district. Both these specimens 

 have now been presented by their respective owners to the national 

 collection. Mr. Lydekker's specimen is a most magnificent example, 

 so far as its size and the character of its fur are concerned, but again, 

 being without a skull, and showing a certain superficial resemblance to 

 what the common Indian Flying squirrel, Pteromys oral, Tickell, might 

 be if occurring in a cold climate, no zoologist has dared to describe it. 



Finally, before speaking of the specimen that has settled what this 

 fine squirrel really is, a reference may be made to two flying squirrels 

 in the Leyden Museum described by Dr. Anderson*, one said to be from 

 Kashmir and the other probably from Thibet, which, judging only from 

 his descriptions, may be not improbably a melanoid and a normal, but 

 imperfect, example respectively of this most interesting addition to the 

 known fauna of India. 



At last in 1887, Mr. G. M. Giles, of the Indian Marine Survey, 

 when on the Kafiristan-Chitral Mission under Colonel Lockhart, C. B., 

 had brought to him at Gilgit a living example of the present form, 

 which had been taken at an altitude of about 6000 feet. This specimen 

 on its death was skinned, and, fortunately, its skull brought home for 

 comparison, and by the kindness of Prof. Wood-Mason and Mr. Giles 

 I have been entrusted with it for description. 



It is by the skull alone, first brought home by Mr. Giles, that we 

 are enabled to make out its true position, as no one, from an inspection 

 of the skin, would have suspected that the animal was anything but a fine 

 and very long-furred species of Pteromys. The skull, however, shows 

 that this is not the case, and that the species must be relegated to a new 

 genus, representing a highly specialized hypsodont form quite unap- 

 proached, so far as its dental characters are concerned, by any member 

 of the family Sciuridce. 



* Zool. Yunn. Exp. Mamm, pp. 284 and 286, 1878. 



