240 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXXIV, 
On reéxamination of the subject, however, in the light of the present 
abundant squirrel material, I can find no form, nor even a single specimen, 
which agrees with the description and figure of Sciwrus variabilis. The 
squirrels of this group from the Lake Maracaibo district (Scewrus versicolor 
gulie Osgood) have the basal fourth and the distal third of the tail deep 
black and the rest red (not the basal two thirds of the tail black and the rest 
red); the rump is black and not red; the belly is red, with sometimes 
irregular small spots of white, instead of the underparts wholly white, as 
only rarely and sporadically occurs in any of the gerrardi squirrels. 
With a region of intergrades between the two forms, zulie@ passes into 
Sciurus variabilis morulus Bangs of the Rio Atrato and Panama regions, 
which has the black dorsal area much reduced, and the shoulders and entire 
sides of the body with the hair tips ochraceous and not red; only the ex- 
treme base of the tail black and the rest red; the belly red with small 
irregular spots of white in occasional specimens, not white. To the south- 
ward morulus passes into typical gerrard?, which has the mid-dorsal area 
black, the rest of the upperparts with the hair tips red, and red underparts; 
but with no red, in this nor in any other subspecies of the gerrardi group, 
on the lower back and rump, as represented in the figure of S. variabilts. 
These being the facts of the case it seems necessary to discard the name 
Scwurus variabilis as indeterminable. 
The type of Sciwrus gerrardi Gray, in the British Museum (No. 53. 12. 
7. 2, ex coll. Verreaux), from “New Grenada,” has been identified by 
‘Thomas (on label) as “closely agrees with the original figure of variabilis 
Geoff., and may be probably accepted as typical.” ! The lower back is 
not quite so black as in most specimens from western Colombia and the 
coast region of northern Ecuador, but (except for the white belly) it agrees 
quite as well with the average condition of a series of some 40 specimens 
from this general region as does the type of versicolor, and is quite as typical. 
The type of versicolor, from Cachabi (or Cachavi), northern Ecuador 
(alt. 500 ft.), has a red belly, but the dark dorsal band so characteristic of 
this large series as a whole, is almost obsolete, and the tail is yellow (due 
apparently to bleaching) instead of deep red, and the tip of the tail has more 
black than most specimens of the series. Except for the yellow instead of 
deep red tail, the type is similar to numerous specimens from the Chocé 
region of Colombia. 
———____ 
1The type locality is assumed by Thomas (verbally communicated to me) to be near 
the mouth of Rio Magdalena, which is unforested and not a squirrel country. 
