34 



MAMMALIA. 



of a darker colour and has lost the white tips to the fur ; this form 

 is also distinguished by its long and very dark tail. 



Pteromys magnificus from Nepal and Sikkim seems at first to be 

 a well marked species with its very dark maroon dorsal surface, 

 with hardly any trace of, the white tips to the fur ; there is however 

 a specimen (P. magnificus, " g'' in the list below) which is quite 

 intermediate between the typical P. magnificus and the typical P. 

 alborufa; in this specimen the maroon of the back is much 

 lighter and the white tips to the fur producing the grizzled appear- 

 ance so characteristic of P. alborufa are present, though in not so 

 marked a form. 



Pteromys caniceps seems constantly smaller than P. magnificus 

 and P. albiventer, and since the skulls in the Museum are all im- 

 mature, there is a strong suspicion that this will turn out to be the 

 young of P. magnificus or of P. albiventer, but this will have to be 

 proved by further investigations. 



In Pteromys albiventer the contrast between the colour of the 

 back and the colour of the parachute is not so marked as in P. 

 magnificus : the shoulders, however, are somewhat yellow and 

 traces of the white tips to the fur begin to appear : this latter 

 feature is most marked in the Kashmir and Gilgit specimens. 



Pteromys alborufus. 



Pteromys alborufus, A, Milne Edwards Comptes Rend., Ixx, p. 342 

 (1870) ; id. Rech. Mam., p. 298, pis. xva, fig. i, and xlv; Anderson Anai. 

 Zool. Res., p. 284. 



Disiribution. — Assam and Burma southwards to Tenasserim ; 

 also obtained from Moupin in Eastern Thibet. 



