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Show 346 MR. OLDFIELD THOMAS OX [Nov. 28, <3. 9, 11, 12, 13. $ .8 ,1 4 ,1 5 ,1 6 ,1 7 ,1 8 ,1 9 ,2 0 . Jozankei, ear Sapporo, Hokkaido. The Noboribetsu and Aoyama specimens are in the winter, and the Jozankei specimens in the summer pelage. In Major Barrett-Hamilton's paper* on the subspecies of Sciurus vulgaris, those from the Far East, from Korea and Hokkaido, are assigned to S. v. calotus Hodgs. t, whose typical locality is the high region of Central Asia. But the valuable series obtained by Mr. Anderson indicates that they are sufficiently different to have a subspecific name of their own. For while the type of calotus and other specimens from the Altai are, in winter pelage, a clear deep grey above without rufous suffusion, the whole of the Hokkaido examples are strongly suffused along the head, dorsal area, and base of the tail with a colour between " Mars-brown " and " vinaceous-cinnamon " of Ridgway, though paler than either. Sides clearer and more silvery grey, especially on two patches on each side, behind the shoulders and in front of the hips. Throat, chest, and belly pure sharply defined white, the hairs white to their roots. Ear-tufts, hands, and feet blackish, more or less speckled with fulvous. Tail broadly washed with black, the basal part of the hairs more or less greyish or fulvous. In summer pelage the ground-colour (apart from melanism) is dull reddish brown, with dark red ears and feet, and perhaps sometimes a more or less red-washed tail. But every specimen is to a certain degree affected with melanism, and the only one that has the body, ears, feet, and proximal half of tail red, also has the terminal half of the latter organ blackish, as the whole of it is in the majority of specimens. Dimensions of the type, measured in the flesh:- Head and body 244 mm.; tail 175 ; hind foot (s. u.) 60 ; ear 34. Skull-greatest length 54 ; basilar length 43. Hab. Hokkaido. Type from Aoyama. Type. Adult male in winter pelage J. B.M. No. 6.1.4.128. Original number 98. Collected 9 November, 1904. Two specimens from Soul, Korea, presented by Mr. C. W. Campbell, and killed in January 1889, appear to be quite similar to the Hokkaido Squirrel. This Eastern form of S. vulgaris is no doubt most closely related to S. v. calotus, but may be distinguished by the rufous suffusion along its dorsal area. This produces, at least in the winter coat, a considerable resemblance to the Scandinavian Squirrel, but from that animal it is readily distinguished by its dark ear-tufts and feet, and by the sharp definition and complete whiteness of the colour of the under surface. This Squirrel is of course the Sciurus varius of the £ Fauna * P. Z. S. 1899, p. 3. f Mustela (?) calotus Hodgs. Calc. Journ. N. H. ii. p. 221 (1842). j The hands and feet of the type have some of the red of the summer coat still on them, and this specimen is not, as I at first thought, an exception to the rule that the Hokkaido Squirrel has dark feet in the winter pelage. |