OCR Text |
Show 660 MR. E. R. ALSTON ON NEOTROPICAL SQUIRRELS. [June 18, III. SCIURUS GRISEOFLAVUS. *Macroxus griseoflavus, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 3rd series, xx. p. 427 (1867). (Sciurus leucops, Allen, Mon. N.-Am. Rodent, p. 753, nee Gray.) Length (in skin) about 13*50 inches, of tail-vertebrse 10*25 inches. Upper parts nearly uniform yellowish grey, the narrow black rings and minute whitish tips of the hairs merely obscuring the general tint produced by their broad pale-brown median bands; lower parts yellowish red, the hairs in one specimen obscurely ringed with black. Tail bushy, strongly washed with white; the hairs yellowish or pale brown, with two or three narrow and one broader black band succeeded by a long white tip. Hab. Mexico (?) ; Guatemala. Mr. Allen considers Gray's M. griseoflavus to be specifically identical with his M. leucops (op. cit. p. 753) ; and the original diagnosis certainly seems to give countenance to such a view. The typical specimens (five in number), however, are very different, and in my opinion are closely allied to the last species, of which I suspect it will eventually prove to be a southern race. More specimens, however, are required before they can be united; and provisionally I therefore accept S. griseoflavus as a distinct species. It appears probable that this is Mr. Tomes's S. ludovicianus from Guatemala1; and a Mexican specimen in the Copenhagen Museum, labelled " Sc. affinis, an sp. nov. ? Reinh.," does not appear to be separable. IV. SCIURUS VARIEGATUS. Sciurus variegatus, Erxleben, Syst. Reg. An. p. 421 (1777, ex Hernandez). *Sciurus aureogaster, F. Cuvier, Hist, des Mamm. iii., livr. lix. (1829). Sciurus leucogaster, F. Cuvier, Suppl. de Buff. i. Mamm. p. 300 (1831). Sciurus albipes, Wagner, Abh. Bayer. Ak. ii. p. 101 (1837). Sciurus ferruginiventris, Audubon & Bachman, P. Ac. Philad. 1841, p. 101. Sciurus varius, Wagner, Suppl. Schreber Saugeth. iii. p. 168 (1843). Sciurus socialis, Wagner, torn. cit. p. 170. *Macroxus morio, Gray, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 3rd series, xx. p. 424 (1867, nee Wagner). *Macroxus maurus, Gray, torn. cit. p. 425. *Macroxus leucops, Gray, torn. cit. p. 427. (Sciurus aureigaster et S. leucops, Allen, Mon. N.-Am. Rodent. pp. 750, 753.) Hab. Southern Mexico; Guatemala? Average length about 10*50 inches, of tail-vertebrse 8*75 inches. 1 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, p. 281. |