42 
REPORT ON ZOOLOGY, MDCCCXLII : 
Beaver to the Sciurmce destroys completely their natural character ; 
and I know not what definition could then he given of the Sciuridce. In 
his first work on the Rodentia, Waterhouse (Loud, Mag. of Nat. Hist. 
1839, p. 593) had placed Castor and Ascomys with Spalax in his family 
of the Arvicolidoe, a classification, at least, more allowable than the 
present one under the Sciurince. Castor shows, however, in its whole 
skeleton and dental structure, in the formation of its feet, tail, and 
secreting apparatus connected with the organs of generation, so many 
serious deviations even from the Mice, that any union with them is 
likewise unnatural. 
The addition to the new species of the genus Sciurus is extremely 
large, but unfortunately a great part of it is so unsatisfactorily charac- 
terized, that the reporter, in the want of specimens, cannot determine on 
a separation of the species which may be nominal only. He contents 
himself with simply quoting the species according to their habitats. 
a. Indian. — The ample description of the Sc. Delessertii by Gervais, 
with a plate of this species and its skull, as well as of the skull of Sc. 
insignis, Rafflesii, and aureiventer, has now appeared twice ; once in the 
Magas, de Zool. No. 20, and again in Delessert’s Souv. d’un Voy. dans 
ITnde, which is much to be disapproved of, as it costs the purchaser 
double ; and amongst the 1200 Mammalia which Delessert brought 
home with him, there must have been sufficient novelty for other plates. 
Besides, Gervais has, in both works, confounded Tamias and Funam- 
hulus together ; while in fact the former have cheek-pouches, and the 
latter, like true Squirrels, have not. 
J. E. Gray describes in the Ann. x. p. 263, six other species ; — 1, Sc. 
rufo-gularis from China, very like the Sc, Raffiesii, but only half the 
size ; without white on the cheeks ; and the shoulders and side of the 
neck are red. 2. Sc. rufoniger ; black; throat, inside of legs, and be- 
neath, bright red ; along each side an indistinct streak ; outside of the 
thigh grisled white : India. 3. Sc. rufogaster ; reddish, grisled ; head, 
side of the neck, and outside of the limbs, leaden-grey, grisled ; tail and 
feet black ; abdomen red ; Malacca. 4. Sc. atrodorsalis ; grey ; middle 
of the back blackish, slightly grisled ; cheeks and whiskers yellowish ; 
ears, chest, belly, and under side of limbs, dull rufous ; tail blackish, hair 
with a broad black central band : Bhotan. 5. Sc. castaneoventris ; very 
like the Sc. hippuris, but only half the size, and the ears are grey : China. 
6. Sc. caniceps ; pale grey, grisled ; back yellowish, beneath paler grey ; 
tail long, grey, black varied, ringed, hair with three broad black bands : 
Bhotan. 
h. African. — Waterhouse has described three species from the Niger 
Expedition, in the Ann. x. p. 202 : — 1. Sc. Stangeri ; larger than the 
common Squirrel, with coarse fur, freckled with black and yeUow on the 
upper parts of the body ; the abdomen thinly covered with hair ; tail 
86 
