OCR Text |
Show 140 DR. J. ANDERSON ON NEW SQUIRRELS. [Feb. 7, Upper Burmah ; and the Calcutta Museum has received two from the same district, where they were shot by Captain Williams. These six specimens are alike in all their details of colouring. Belly-banded Squirrels. SCIURUS GORDONI, n. sp. Upper surface and a narrow line from between the fore limbs, along the middle of the body, grizzled olive-grey, the upper surface with a more or less rufous tint; annulations fine. Fur of moderate length. Chin and sides of the throat paler grizzled than the back ; the lower part of the throat, the chest, belly, and inside of the limbs either rich chestnut or pale reddish yellow. Ears feebly pencilled. Tail as long as the body and neck, concolorous with the back, and more or less interruptedly ringed with rufous and black, the rings most distinct on the latter fourth. A more or less marked apical tuft tipped with rufous. Length from root of tail to snout 9*026, tail 7 inches. Skull: from anterior margin of occipital foramen to base of incisors 1*053 ; interval between molars and incisors 0*048 ; distance between (transverse) front molars 0*025 ; breadth between orbits 0*067. This Squirrel occurs among the rather dense vegetation within the stockade at Bhamd. I obtained only two specimens ; and, as the above description indicates, the colour of the lower parts is the subject of considerable variation, it being light reddish yellow in one and rich chestnut in the other. In the former the grizzled line along the centre of the belly is much darker than in the latter, in which it is concolorous with the back. The one with the brightly coloured ventral surface is a female with enlarged teats, indicating that she recently had, or was with young at the time of her death in the month of February. The pale variety was procured in September. They are both adults; aud it is probable that the difference in their hues is to be ascribed to seasonal changes dependent on sexual causes. Raffles, in writing of S. aflinis (S. bicolor), states that it appears to vary considerably at different seasons, and suggests that these may coincide with the rutting-time. He describes it as changing to a light brown and even to a dusky yellow; and it is interesting to observe that, as in S. gordoni, Raffles's most intensely coloured individuals of S. bicolor were procured in February, and the lighter ones five months afterwards. Against these facts, however, Raffles mentions that a specimen he had in his possession for ten months did not change colour. Much importance, however, cannot be attached to observations of the latter kind, because it is impossible to say what may not be the influence which confinement exercises on these animals, more especially on the activity of their generative organs. The intimate connexion that exists between the sexual organs in certain animals and changes in the colours of their inteo-u-mentary appendages is an undoubted fact; and it is equally certain that in the majority of feral animals they lie more or less "dormant in confinement, so that the class of facts analogous to that just quoted from Raffles will throw little or no light on this interestino- |