PTEEOMYS. 293 



reddish-bay fades into pale yellowish. There is a blackish area over the nose, 

 another around the eyes, while the moustachial region is brownish. The feet and 

 a line along one-half of the carpal cartilage, and a portion of the anterior border 

 of the limb, and the tip of the tail, are black. Cheek-bristles are present. The 

 chin is dark blackish-brown, and the front part of the throat and all the under parts 

 are rich rufous yellowish, most intense on the mesial line, on the inside of the Kmbs 

 and on the outer half of the parachute which is rich red. The tail is not very 

 bushy, and apj)arently tends to become distichous. The body, in the Museum 

 specimen, measures 21"75 inches, and the tail 14"75 iaches, without the terminal hair. 



The skull has a short muzzle, rather broader and shorter than in the other 

 species. The molars are strongly tubercular, and the incisors rather narrow. 



Dr. Gray at first assigned this animal to Nepal, but afterwards, ia his List of 

 Mammalia published in 1834, correctly referred it to Java. It occurs also in Borneo 

 and Malacca, and in the latter locality is known as the " Tupai Terbang." Finlayson 

 or Crawford's Mission to Cochin China obtained it in Siam. 



One of Cantor's specimens from Malacca is in the India Museum, London, 

 with his own label attached to it as P. nitidus, and he mentions that the part of the 

 head anterior to the ears, the cheeks, chest and abdomen are wliite in some indi- 

 viduals of either sex. 



The figure in Gray and Hardwicke's illustrations does not represent the Javan 

 animal P. nitidus which has not a pale-coloured yellow head with a black ring 

 around the eye, and black paws, the tail being lighter coloured than the body ; these, 

 however, are the characters of P. melanotis. The animal figured appears either to 

 have had no black tip to its tail, or to have lost that portion. 



*Pteromys pearsonii, Gray, Plate XXIII. 



Pteromys pearsonii, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. x. 1842, p. 262; Schinz, Syn. Mamm. 



vol. ii. 1844, p. 57; Horsfd. Cat. Mamm. E. Ind. Co.'s Mus. 1851, p. 162. 

 Fteromys sagitta, Walker, Cal. Journ. Nat. Hist. vol. ii. 1843, p. 266. 

 Pteromys (SciuropterusJ setoms, Temm. Faun. Japon. Mamm. 1847, p. 49. 

 Sciuropterus villoms, Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1847, vol. xvi. pt. ii. p. 866; ihid. vol. xxxii. 



1863, p. 96; Cat. Mamm. As. Soc. Mus. Beng. 1863, p. 96; Jerdon's Mamm. 1867 p. 179. 

 Scitiroptera villosa, Blyth, vol. xxviii. 1859, p. 278. 

 Sciurqpfems haleensis, Swinhoe, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1862, p. 359; Hid. 1870, p. 634. 



I have examined the type of P. pearsonii in the Indian Museum, also the type 

 ' of P. villosm, Blyth, and of P. haleensis, Swinhoe ; and two skins from Teng-yue-chow 

 in Yunnan exactly agree with P. pearsonii and P. villosus. This species is a small 

 flying squirrel about the size of P. alboniger, but considerably more rufous than 

 that species, and at once distinguished from it and P. jimbriatus by the long hairs 

 that clothe the base of the ears, and from P. genibarUs by the absence of the 

 postocular vibrissse. The upper surface of the head, and the back are rich glossy 

 reddish-brown, finely grizzled with black; the parachute being blackish-brown, 

 faintly and sparsely washed with reddish-brown. The fur is very fine, soft and 



