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Show 668 MR. E. R. ALSTON ON NEOTROPICAL SQUIRRELS. [June 18, middle of the back is considerably darker than the flanks ; and there is some variety in the exact tint of the red wash on the tail. I can confirm Mr. Allen's statement that this species (as well as S. variabilis and S. cestuans) have normally only one upper premolar. Dr. Peters states, it is true, that the type of his " var. hoffmanni" had two ; but the first was minute and only attached to the gum ; and I have not been able to find more than one, either in dried skulls or in spirit-specimens. IX. SCIURUS .ESTUANS. Sciurus cestuans, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 88 (1 766). Myoxus guerlingus, Shaw, Gen. Zool. ii. p. 171, pl. clvi. (1801). Sciurus gilvigularis, Natterer ap. Wagner, Abb. Bayer. Ak. v. p. 283 (1850). *Macroxus leucogaster, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, xx. p. 430 (1867, nee F. Cuv.). *Macroxus irroratus, Gray, torn. cit. p. 431. *Macroxusflaviventris, Castelnau ap. Gray, torn. cit. p. 432. (Sciurus cestuans, var. cestuans, Allen, Mon. N.-Am. Rodent. p. 756, 1877). Hab. Guiana ; Brazil ; Eastern Peru ; Bolivia. Average length about 7*25 inches, of tail-vertebrae 7 inches. One upper premolar. Upper parts olive, rather lighter and more fulvous than in the last species; lower parts fulvous, greyish, or white; tail black, more or less washed with pale fulvous, the hairs pale brown, banded with black and tipped with pale faded yellow. I have little to add to Mr. Allen's critical notes on this well-known Squirrel. Gray states, in his description of his M. leucogaster (not to be confounded with F. Cuvier's species of that name1), that the hairs of the lower parts are " white to the base;" this is not the case, though the dusky colour at the roots is little developed on the chest. M. irroratus must also be placed here, although the original description is such that Mr. Allen unhesitatingly referred it to the last species ; and M.flaviventer is to me quite undistinguishable from the ordinary type of S. cestuans. S. pusillus, Geoffr., and Macrotus kuhlii, Gr., are considered by Mr. Allen to be the young of the present species; but I believe them to be quite distinct2. X. SCIURUS DEPPEI. * Sciurus deppei, Peters, Monatsb. Ak. Berl. 1863, p. 654. *Maeroxus tephrogaster, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, xx. p. 431. *Macroxus teeniurus, Gray, loc. cit. *Macroxus medellinensis, Gray, op. cit. ser. 4, x. p. 408 (1872). (Sciurus tephrogaster, Allen, Mon. N.-Am. Rodent, p. 763 ( 1877)). Hab. Mexico ; Honduras ; Guatemala ; Columbia. Average length nearly 9 inches, of tail-vertebrse 7*25 inches. Two upper premolars. Upper parts dark olive, often darker along the 1 Cf. antea, p. 660. 2 Cf. infra, p. 670. |
