920 Asiatic Society. [No. 119. 



the name of Assamensis proposed by Dr. McClelland should not henceforth be 

 applied to the species observed in continental India by himself, and by Hamilton and 

 Finlayson." The present species is nearly allied to Sc. mazimus, but differs from that 

 animal and its Javanese analogue Sc. Lesckenaultii, among other respects, by the 

 constancy of its colouring ; Dr. McClelland remarking that the description of it 

 which he took was derived from seven or eight specimens, and that among the various 

 individuals he had seen there appeared to be no difference. " All the upper parts 

 are deep and glossy reddish-black, the cheeks and under- parts whitish tinged with 

 fulvous, with two dark spots on the chin. Body fifteen, tail sixteen inches long." Our 

 Museum contains a fine series illustrative of the variations of colour of Sc. maximus ; 

 and the skulls of both the present and the foregoing species {Pteromys petaurista) 

 have been taken out, for purposes of comparison with their proximate allies. That 

 of Sc. bicolor is much smaller, and otherwise differs considerably from the skull of 

 Sc. maximus. 



5. Sciurus ? — Undetermined, but, I believe, a species which I have seen 



before, in England. Dr. Spry possesses a living specimen of it from Arracan. Length 

 10 or 11 inches, the tail, with its hair, 1 foot or nearly so; ears slightly tufted with 

 whitish, denoting the hyemal dress. Colour grizzled fulvous-brown, purer fulvous 

 on the sides of the neck, and less so on the head and croup ; fore-limbs and hind feet 

 ashy, the tail slender and black-tipped, and the under-parts and inside of the limbs 

 whitish-grey; whiskers black and strong. This species is very common along the 

 Tenasserim coast. 



6. Rhyzomys cinereus, McClelland, (Calcutta Journal of Natural History, No. 7, 

 p. 496,) genus Nyctocleptes of Temminck. — The researches of naturalists in this part 

 of the world are fast bringing to light additional species of this curious genus, 

 which, till lately, was only known to contain the Rh. Sumatrensis, Gray, f^or Mus 

 Sumatrensis, Raffles,* Spalax Javanus, Cuvier, and Nyctocleptes — ?, Temminck,) 

 and the Rh. Sinensis, well figured in one of the late Major General Hardwicke's draw- 

 ings, edited and named by Mr. Gray. The latter species has been discovered to in- 

 habit the Phillippine Islands by Mr. Gumming — (vide Proc. Zool. Soc, 1840, 

 p. 62.) A third has been made known by Mr. Hodgson as an inhabitant of 

 Nep&l (Rh. badius, Hodgson) ; and the present species is described to me 

 by Mr. Barb to be the smaller of two inhabiting the Tenasserim provinces. 

 Moreover, two if not three species, according to Dr. McClelland, are contained in a 

 zoological collection of much interest, recently made in Assam by Mr. H. Walker, 

 and which is now under that gentleman's investigation. An additional interesting no- 

 tice of the Nep^lese species has been published by Mr. Hodgson (in Calcutta Jour- 

 nal of Natural History, No. 7, p. 411). The fact there stated of this creature's tameness 

 when first caught, and not offering to bite with its formidable front-teeth, is observable 

 in even most other Rodents, though the genera Mus and Sciurus form conspicuous ex- 

 ceptions to it : the large Water Vole of Europe may be handled with perfect impunity. 

 With respect to the food of the species of Rhizomys, which is known to consist of roots, 

 and especially those of bamboo, I would call attention to an observation of the Rev. 



* Dr. McClelland inclines to doubt the identification of Mr. Gray's animal with that of Sir 

 Stamford Raffles, and which is figured in one of the late Colonel Farquarson's drawings, preserved 

 in the Museum of the London Asiatic Society, where I have seen it. vide Loc. Cit. 



