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Show 1390.] DR. A. B. MEYER ON A N E W SQUIRREL. 599 two are representative species, inhabiting distinct areas. Bos frontalis may be the wild ox of the Misbmi hills and of the mountains extending eastwards from Assam. These hills have scarcelv been penetrated by any Europeans and are extremely difficult of access. In some M S . notes, for which I am indebted to Mr. Hume, he gives measurements of the horns on a skull, which was sent to him as that of a wild animal from the South Mishmi hills. The measurements are those, I think, of B. frontalis, the tips of the horns being 37 inches apart. There is one more point on which a remark is necessary. The animal described briefly by Mr. Davison l as the « Sapio * of the Malays may be Bos sondaicus. It is not impossible that the white of the 'stockings' may be rufous in some individuals of either B. gaurus or B. sondaicus (I have seen them deep yellow in a bull B. frontalis)2. The insides of the legs are not unfrequently of a golden brown and may occasionally be chestnut. It seems hardly probable that an additional species besides Bos gaurus and Bos sondaicus remains to be discovered in the Malay Peninsula. 2. Description of a new Squirrel from the Philippine Islands. By A. B. M E Y E R , M.D., Director of the Royal Zoological M u s e u m , Dresden, C.M.Z.S., &c. . [Eeceived August 28,1890.] There were, till quite recently, but few species of Squirrels known from the Philippines, though the great islands in the south of the Indian Archipelago (Celebes and Borneo) had already been shown to possess a large series, and new species are being discovered there nearly every year. Putting aside Borneo, which, being more intimately related to the continent of Asia, is rich in Squirrels, Celebes, together with its small adjacent islands, is known to possess seven species, viz. :- Sciurus murinus, M . & Schl., from North Celebes. ,, rubriventer, M . & Schl., from North Celebes. „ leucomus, M . & Schl., from North Celebes. „ prevosti, Desm., from North Celebes. marked on the climbing propensities of Bos frontalis. Bos sondaicus is, as Blyth points out, a more leggy animal than its two allies, and I think B. gaurus has proportionally longer legs than B. frontalis. 1 P. Z. S. 1889, p. 448. It is worthy of notice that Cantor (J. A. S. B. xv. p. 272), in his Catalogue of the Mammalia inhabiting the Malayan Peninsula and islands, does not mention Bos sondaicus and gives Saki utan (which means, I believe, simply wild cattle) as the Malay name of Bos gaurus. 2 Since the above was written, I have seen the bull Gayal in the Society's Gardens, with a distinctly ferruginous tinge on parts of his white 'stockings.' I can well believe that all the lower part of each leg may be stained red in some animals. The coloration is due, Mr. Bartlett tells me, to an exudation, that becomes much more copious in hot weather. |
