SCIURUS. 265 



"black and yellow bands are faint, especially tlie latter, and the most external line is 

 almost obsolete. 



In all their external characters these races appear to be one, and the general 

 structure of the animal shows clearly that it is not a Tamias. 



SciURUS soBiciNTJS, Watcrhouse. 



Sciums soricinus, Waterlionse^ Cat. Mamm. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1838, p. 46, No. 433. 



Sciums melanotis, Miiller und Sehlegel, Verliandl. 1839-44, p. 87 and p. 98, pi, xiv. fig. .5 ; Wagner, 



Sehreber, Saugeth. Suppl. vol. iii. 1845, p. 207 ; Schinz, Syn. Mamm. vol. ii. 1845, p. 41 ; Gray, 



Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. xx. 1867, p. 274. 



Tins species is the smallest of all the squirrels of Southern Asia. The head is 

 rather broad, thick, and blunt for the size of the animal, while the muzzle is short, 

 and very broad at its origin. The ears are sUghtly pointed at their tips, and have a 

 somewhat elongated form, being one-third longer than broad ; they are clad with 

 short yellowish hairs on the inside, and on the back with long black hairs which 

 extend beyond their margins. 



The colom' is subject to considerable variation. In Java, the species is a dull 

 pale yellow-brown, passing into bright olive, variegated with black, which is pro- 

 duced by the black annulation of the fur. A moderately broad white stripe runs 

 along both sides of the head, below the eyes and ears, suddenly ceasing at the 

 shoulders. It is bordered above to the ear, and along its lower margin till just below 

 the ear, by a narrow black band. In some specimens, the whole of the hinder 

 portion of the head and neck is occupied by a large spot, which is paler than the 

 ground colour ; but it is obsolete in other Sumatran examples, and those from 

 Borneo are nearly ' ahke, and differ only in the following details from the Javan 

 animals. The colour of the upper parts is brighter, and merges, principally on the 

 head, into a red-brown. The under parts are pale yellow with a reddish tint, while in 

 those from Java they are greyish-white, passing into yellow. The hairs of the ears 

 are longer than in the Javan animals, and the spot on the neck is more clearly 

 defined, and is generally of a pale yellow tint. 



The skull resembles that of S. exilis, but the nasal bones are more forwardly 

 arched, and, as a consequence, the muzzle is deeper and broader. This is essentially 

 an arboreal squirrel, but the species is not numerically abundant in Java. In that 

 island it is found up to 1,100 feet above the sea. It appears to be more nimierous 

 in Borneo, especially in the low-lying land. In Sumatra it is also not very common, 

 and is found in similar situations to those in which it occurs in Borneo, especially on 

 the west coast. 



Inches. 



The body measures .......... 3'50 



Tail, without the hair 3-60 



The specimen referred by Waterhouse to B. soricinus is in the British Museum, 

 and agrees with fig. 4 of Miiller and Schlegel's plate. It is a Javan specimen. 



k2 



