SCIUEUS. 273 



black, there being about thirteen alternate light and black rings, of which the terminal 

 ring is pale. On the sacral region, the black of the back is contracted into a 

 narrow band, well marked oif from the pale colour of the thighs. The sides of the 

 face and neck are commonly greyish, but in some they are washed with rufous, 

 tending undoubtedly to assume the S. schlegelU garb which has been indicated by 

 Schlegel as a distinct species. The red would appear to commence around the eye 

 and to extend upwards from the throat, because in specimens with rufous on 

 the cheek, the colour around the eye is more marked than in others which are 

 younger. The wlnte band extends from the axilla to the groin, and merges into the 

 grey of the outside of the thighs. The black line, below the white lateral line, is 

 broad, and is continued more or less along the external margin of the fore limb. 

 The chin is almost blackish, with grey grizzling, while the under surface of the 

 neck, the inside of the limbs, and the chest and belly, are rich chestnut. 



In the true black-headed and grizzled phase, the head from the nose to between 

 the eyes, the cliin, the feet, the outer border of the fore limbs, a broad streak along 

 the side of the rufous of the belly from the shoulder to the groin, and the tail, are 

 black. All the remainder of the upper parts and the base of the tail and the sides 

 of the face and neck and outsides of the Umbs are greyish-black, grizzled with 

 white, with the exception of a broad white band lying above the black band of the 

 sides, and having a similar length. The under parts are deep chestnut. The ears 

 are of moderate size and rounded, and clad with short adpressed hairs. 



Many sjjecimens of this phase from Borneo and the Celebes, agreeing in every 

 detail with each other, have come under my observation. A specimen of S. 

 atricapillus from Borneo, in the Ley den Museu.m, has the upper surface of the back 

 nearly black, and is much darker than another and larger example from the same 

 island. It closely approaches the type of S. erytliromelas, only the extremities 

 are jet black, and the bright-coloured lateral Hne is well developed and yellowish. 

 It is undoubtedly intermediate between that type and S. atricapillus, and is only 

 distinguished from S. sclilegelii from the Celebes by its blacker head, its greyish 

 cheeks, black tail, and its better-defined yellow lateral line. S. erytliromelas and 

 S. sclilegelii from the Celebes are also so like each other in general characters 

 that I cannot but regard them as marking some transitional phase intimately 

 related to the atricapilline form. Temminck considered S. sclilegelii as the winter 

 pelage, aS*. erytliromelas as the coat of the breeding season, and S. atricapillus to be 

 the perfect Uvery. 



In the type of S. erytliromelas from the Celebes, we have a squirrel which is 

 whoUy black on the upper parts and tail, like *S'. rufoniger from Borneo, but with 

 some red on the lower portion of the limbs, which does not occur in the latter. The 

 black of the outside of the fore extremities is less marked than in the Bornean 

 squirrels, but the fore feet are blotched with black, and the upper surface of one hind 

 foot is nearly entirely black, while the other is red, blotched with black. The shoulder 

 and thighs and the narrow line along the side are the same as in Sciurus rufoniger, 

 and the colour of the under parts is identical in these squirrels from Borneo and 



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