184 6 ] the Malayan Peninsula and Islands. 251 



Sciurus laticaudatus, Diard, Var. 



Syn. — Sciurus laticaudatus, Diard, apud S. Miiller ?* 

 Hab. — Malayan Peninsula. 



The present squirrel differs from the diagnosis of Sciurus laticaudatus 

 from the west coast of Borneo, (communicated in Natuur en Genees- 

 kundig Archie/, SfC. II Jaarg. I Aflev. p. 87,) in having neither the first 

 nor the fifth molar of the upper jaw very large. Both are of nearly- 

 equal size, and much smaller than the rest. The following is a descrip- 

 tion of the Malayan animal. 



The shape of the head is depressed, elongated, conical, gradually 

 attenuated towards the laterally compressed nose. The whole outline, 

 the slender form, and general colours, render the animal strikingly simi- 

 lar to Tupaia ferruginea. The eyes are large, brilliant, dark; the ears 

 large, oval, with smooth short hairs ; the mouth is small, the upper 

 incisors are very minute, the lower slender, flattened, and almost 

 straight ; the black mustachios, whiskers, superciliary and gular bristles, 

 and the few white ones of the forearm, are all shorter than the head ; 

 the muzzle hairy, leaving the margins of the small, and at the apex 

 laterally pierced nostrils, naked. The limbs and feet slender ; the 

 nailless tubercle of the thumb rudimentary, barely perceptible in the 

 living animal. The claws are small, sharp, compressed, whitish. 



The colour of the head, back, outside of the limbs and feet, is a rich 

 rusty- red, mixed with shining black, particularly on the occiput, the 

 back and the feet, less on the sides, where the ferruginous prevails ; 

 the throat, chest, abdomen and inner side of the limbs, whitish ; in some 

 individuals pale-yellowish. The fur is soft and delicate. The separate 

 hairs are leaden-grey at the base, shining black, or with a broad subter- 

 minal ferruginous band. The tail is shorter than the body, distichous, 

 broadest in the middle, attenuated at the root, terminating in a 

 thin tuft. It may be compared to a feather, black on each side 

 of the quill, successively ferruginous, again black, margined with buff. 



• In the List of Mammalia in the British Museum occurs a genus : Rhinosciurus, 

 Gray, and a species R. tupaioides, Gray, Syn. Sciurus laticaudatus, Miiller? ? Generic 

 or specific characters being neither given nor referred to, it is impossible in India to 

 decide whether the specimen in the British Museum thus labelled, is identical with 

 the animal here characterised. 



