ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
29 
of species of those interesting animals, the Squirrels, 
besides the common dorsal-striped or palm squirrel, which 
occurs here wild, in great profusion, and is wonderfully 
tame. 
The Indian and Malayan species generally represented 
are the following :— S. bicolor , S', giganteus , S. indicus , 
S', maximus , S', inacrourus , S', crythrecus % S. pahnarum , S'. 
plantani , S', prevostii, and occasionally the English squirrel 
which differs from all the Southern Asiatic squirrels, except 
S', indicus , S', maximus and S. inacrourus, in its beautifully 
tufted or penicillated ears. Besides these squirrels there is a 
very extensive scries, the members of which have been des¬ 
cribed as distinct species ; many of them, however, as ou.r 
knowledge extends, are found to have been based on 
examples, either immature, or exhibiting seasonal changes 
of pelage. The changes which the individuals some¬ 
times undergo in one and the same locality are so great, 
that unless the transitional phases are ascertained, the 
naturalist has no course, but to regard the extreme or 
even the intermediate stages as indicating specific rank. 
There is in Upper Burmah a squirrel which at one period 
of the year is uniform greyish olive with a yellowish belly, 
which at another period has a chestnut-coloured head and 
feet, with a brownish olive fur, which at a more advanced 
stage would appear to become chestnut all over. Separate 
species seem to have been founded on these stages. There 
is evidence also tending to show that it sometimes becomes 
black in other localities to the east. 
The squirrels arc resolvable into two groups, the true 
squirrels illustrated by the foregoing species and which arc 
essentially arboreal in their habits, but at the same time 
occasionally descending to the ground ; and those small 
