PTEEOMYS. 295 



and at the external surface of the npper angle. The cheek-bristles are well 

 dereloped. The ears are moderately large, but not broad, and with their posterior 

 borders slightly concave and the tip rounded. Around the eyes is blackish, and 

 before the ears yellowish- grey, and the cheeks are white, washed with yellowish. 

 The fur generally is very soft and dense, and two-tliirds of its base is dusky ashy, 

 the remainder being reddish-brown with a black tip. On the vertex, the sub-apical 

 brown is paler than on the rest of the body, and the parachute is dark brown 

 above, washed with pale brown and having a pale yellowish edge. The under 

 surface of the membrane is very sparsely covered with fine, white hairs, and the 

 lower parts of the animal and inside of the limbs are white, washed with yellowish. 

 The feet are pale yellowish-brown. The tail is very bushy, and not distichous 

 in the adult, but Blyth mentions that it is so in the young, but not markedly so. 

 It is sometimes yellowish-brown, passing in others into dusky brown, especially 

 on its latter half, the mesial line being dark brown. Its under surface at the 

 base is pale brown, passing into blackish-brown beyond. 



This species was originally described by Blyth from a half- grown specimen in 

 rather abraded pelage, and the condition of the type led him to aj)ply to it a not 

 very appropriate name. 



The skull reveals the species to be allied to P. phceomelas, and this not only in 

 size and form, but in the character of its, teeth, which present to a slight extent 

 the ridging which distinguishes the teeth of that species. It differs, however, 

 from it in many important characters, and the two forms constitute two well-defined 

 species. On the other hand, it is more nearly related in its external characters to 

 P. finibriatus, from which, however, it is recognised by its pencilling of the ears 

 at their bases; while from P. villosus, which also presents this latter character 

 and is a closely affined species, it is distinguished by its larger size, bushy tail, and 

 much less vivid colouring. 



Inches. 



Length of body 7-.50 



Tail, without hair 6-00 



This species occurs in the Nilgiris, Southern India, and Ceylon. 



Pteuomts xanthipes, a. M.-Edw. 



Pteromys mntJiipes, K.M.-'EAw. Ann. des Sc. Nat. Zool. 5th ser. 1867, vol. viii. p. -375; Rech. 

 des Mammif. p. 171, pi. xiv. et pi. xva figs. 3, 2>a, 3b. 



This is a squirrel about the size of P. finibriatus, and, like P. fuscoca/pillus 

 and P. pearsonii, it has a long pencil of fine hairs before and below the ears, and 

 its tarsus is clad as in P. melanoptems. 



In colour it is rufous, almost orange-brown, which is most intense on the limbs, 

 on the middle of the back, on the front of the face, and on the cheeks. The hairs 

 of the back and occiput are terminated more or less by yellow points which rest 

 on a basal ground of slaty. The area around the eyes and the muzzle is brown, 



