SCIURUS. 245 



the upper fur extends on to the outside of the limbs and to the tail, but the feet in 

 some are white. The muzzle, and around the eyes, and the whole of the under 

 parts, and inside of the hmbs, are of a pm^e ermine tint, like that which distin- 

 guishes the under parts of S. finlaysoni, but in some specimens the head is wholly 

 white to behind the eye. The ears are generally white, clothed with grey hairs 

 on their backs, and with rufous hairs at their bases superiorly. The brown portion 

 of the pelage is finely and sparsely punctulated with rich yeUow. The taU is 

 broadly ringed with black and yellowish, and the tip tends to become rufous ; 

 but in others, its under surface is wholly white, and its last third pure rich maroon- 

 chestnut, the tip tending to black ; whUe, in one specimen, the last third of the taU, 

 as in S. keraudrenii, is washed with white. This squirrel, therefore, is a mixture 

 of the characters of S. finlaysoni, and, as we shall presently see, of those of immature 

 examples of ;S'. cinnamomeus, which is only a local race or variety of S. ferrugineus. 



S. leucogaster is a young squirrel from Siam, which is undoubtedly the young 

 of >S'. siamensis, with immature examples of which it agrees except in its white 

 under parts, but, at the same time, it is apparently younger than the grizzled and 

 brownish immature specimens of S. siamensis which have come under my observa- 

 tion. This young squirrel, besides having the under parts pure white, is marked 

 above and below the eye with the same colour, but the white under surface is no 

 more specific than would be the white under siirface of S. gordoni or the occasional 

 . grey surface of >S'. lokriaJi. The fur of the body and tail generally is grizzled 

 much as in S. lohroides, but there is a commencing blush of rufous on the head, 

 from the muzzle backwards on to the tail. S. leucogaster is unmistakeably con- 

 nected with *S'. siamensis by specimens with rufous under surfaces, and which do not 

 diEEer from it ia any other respect except in being sHghtly more rufous ; but the 

 evidence which these afford of the specific identity of S. leucogaster with them, 

 although it cannot well be given in a written description, carries conviction through 

 the eye. The feet in these apparently immature squirrels tend to black, which is a 

 significant fact, considering the circumstance that, in the adults of the western red 

 squirrel, the feet always partake more or less of that colour, whereas, ia the adults 

 from Siam, the extremities differ but little from the body colour. The conclusion 

 arrived at from these facts is, that in the very young state of ^S*. cinnamomeus the 

 belly is, at least occasionally, white, and the upper parts grizzled, and that ^S*. boeourtii 

 is a grizzled brown variety, perpetuating the youthful character in its white belly 

 and grizzled fur, but exhibiting a tendency also in its occasionally red tail to assiime 

 the pelage of S. ferrugineus, and in the spreading of the white on to the head, to 

 put on the garb of S. finlaysoni. 



The fur of the upper parts of S. siamensis is essentially annulated, but in the 

 younger of two type specimens the annulation is slightly more marked, and the 

 animal is not so rufous as in the more matured individual. In the latter, the annu- 

 lation has almost disappeared on the head and neck ; and in both, the posterior half 

 of the tail is chestnut, without any annulation, and the under parts are similarly 

 coloured. Some light is thrown on these small annulated specimens by an appa- 



