232 EODENTIA. 



centre, there seems to be a tendency to deposit brilliant pigment in the hair, and 

 for the change to progress less rapidly in the surrounding parts, the activity of 

 action seeming to be concentrated in, and to be diffused from, the original area of 

 change. We have, thus, squirrels with brilhant, red, dorsal areas of different sizes 

 and with long hair, while the surrounding parts have not as yet emerged, or only 

 partially so, from the grey stage ; and these forms constitute the S. caniceps, Gray, 

 and the ^S*. chrysonohis, Blyth. The former term is explained by the circumstance 

 that the red never appears to involve the head. The change of colour is also some- 

 times inaugurated from the base of the tail, spreading upwards on to the rump. 

 These metamorphoses are the exact counterparts in red of those which take place in 

 S. atrodorsalis in black. 



S.phayrei corresponds in the colour of the upper fur to the yellow phase 

 of S. caniceps, and the tail is the same as in it, having a black tip, wliich 

 is the character also that that appendage has in S. pygerythrus. In some 

 examples of S. pliayrei, the dusky or blackish is not confined to the lateral 

 line, but extends over the outside of the fore limbs, the feet being always yellow 

 in squirrels presenting these characters. Some specimens of S. pygerythrus show 

 a distinct tendency to have yellow feet, and further research will probably 

 prove S. phayrei to be only a variety of S. pygerythrus. When Blyth first 

 encountered this form he simply regarded it as a variety of S. pygerythrus, and 

 I believe liis first opinion will be ultimately found to be more in accordance 

 with the real interpretation of the facts than the conclusion he afterwards 

 adopted. 



In the Paris Museum, there is an example of S. blanfordii from Upper 

 Burma, wlaich distinctly shows a dark, lateral streak, so that, taking into con- 

 sideration the other examples to which I have already referred, there seems to 

 be a presumption that it and ^S*. phayrei are one and the same species, and that they 

 are probably identical with S. pygerythrus. Moreover, my impression is that a 

 more extensive series wiU establish their identity with S. caniceps. Tliis view of the 

 question is also supported by a small series of these squirrels in the Leyden Museum 

 from Tounghu, in Upper Burma, presented by the Marquis of Tweedale. Prom the 

 characters manifested by these squirrels, and the cu'cumstance that they were all 

 shot in one locality, they are of great interest. One is an adult, and in its upper 

 parts it exactly resembles S. blanfordii, also in its yellow feet and black tip to its 

 tail, but, like ^S*. phayrei, it has a broad, blackish-brown, lateral stripe. The others 

 are smaller and resemble the foregoing specimen in all their characters, except that 

 they have no dark, lateral streak, and that the feet of two are concolorous with the 

 upper parts, while in the remaining squirrel the feet appear to be changing to 

 yellow, as in the adult. The two former of these, therefore, conform to the 

 type of S. p>ygerythrus, but the fur of the upper parts is greyer and not so 

 richly coloiired as in it, but the annulation of the fur has the same character 

 in both. The remaining specimen in its features is distinctly referable to 

 S. blanfordii. 



