TUPAIA JAVANICA. 
Eastern Archipelago, where these animals are found, is distinguished by a parti- 
cular epithet. Thus two small animals, which, according to our classification, belong 
to the genus which has been above described, are denominated Tupai Press and 
Tupai Tana; while several other animals, belonging to the genus Sciurus, are 
denominated Tupai Jinjang, Tupai Tankrawa, kc. The generic name placed 
at the head of this article, was first proposed in the Catalogue of a Zoological Col- 
lection made in Sumatra by Sir T. Stamford Raffles, and published in the thir- 
teenth Volume of the Transactions of the Lin nean Society of London, It is a simple 
modification of the Malayan term Tupai ; and from the comprehensive manner in 
which this is used by the natives of the Islands of the Eastern Archipelago, it 
may claim a place in our systems, perhaps with more propriety than many names 
borrowed from the languages of the countries where the animals to which they are 
applied, are indigenous. Three species of Tupai a have hitherto been discovered ; 
two of these are natives of Sumatra* Penang, and Singa-pura, while the tlurd 
has been found exclusively in Java, where it is distinguished by the name of 
Bangsring, or Sinsring* 
The generic description above detailed, exhibits accurately the characters of the 
Tupaia ja vanica^ of which two very perfect specimens are contained in the Collections 
of the Honourable East India Company. Of each of the two other species, individuals 
in a good state of preservation were sent by Sir Stamford Raffles to Sir Everard 
Home, for the Royal College of Surgeons ; and through the liberality of the Board 
of Curators of that noble Institution, I have been enabled to give a figure and 
description of the Tupaia Tana, in tins Number of the Zoological Researches, and 
to consult and compare the peculiar characters of the Tupaia fcrruginea. In my 
inquiries relating to this genus, I have therefore enjoyed the advantage of having 
before me all the species that have hitherto been discovered \ and before I proceed 
to the description of the Tupaia javanica, I shall enumerate concisely those characters 
in which they all agree. These shew themselves, first, in the same number and 
disposition of the front and canine teeth, as well as of the grinders, and in the 
length and conical form of the rostrum, which being obtuse, and without that 
proboscoidal elongation that exists in Sorex, Mygale, and the rest of the Insectivores 
of Cuvier, to which they are allied in the system of dentition, affords a dear dis- 
tinctive character. These animals further closely resemble each other in the promi- 
nence of their eyes, in the form of their ears, in the number and disposition of their 
toes and claws, in the general contour of their body, fitted for great agility, in the 
quality of their fur or hairy covering, in the proportional length and form of their 
tail, and in certain peculiarities in the distribution of colours and distinctive 
marks. 
