inguished by size, coloration and habits," by which he means the
large forest squirrels, the medium size grizzled ones, and the little
striped squirrels, to which however I must add one more form, which
is found out of the geographical limits assigned to his work--the
_Rhinosciurus_, or long-snouted squirrel, an animal singularly like
a Tupaia. The squirrels, as a whole, form a natural and well-defined
group, with a remarkable uniformity of dentition and skull, but of
infinite variation in colour. In fact, it is most puzzling and
misleading to find so great a diversity of pelage as is exhibited
by a single species. I was shown by a friend a few months ago a fine
range of colours in skins of a single species from Burmah--_S.
caniceps_. I cannot attempt to describe them from memory, but the
diversity was so marked that I believe they would have been taken
by unscientific observers for so many different species. Now in
domesticated animals there is great variation in colouring, but not
in the majority of wild species. What the causes are that operate
in the painting of the skin of an animal no one can say, any more
than one can say how particular spots are arranged on the petal of
a flower or the wing of a butterfly. That specific liveries have been
designed by an all-wise Creator for purposes of recognition I have
no doubt, as well as for purposes of deception and protection--in
the former case to keep certain breeds pure, and in the latter to
protect animals from attack by enabling them better to hide
themselves, as we see in the case of those birds and quadrupeds which
inhabit exposed cold countries turning white in winter, and in the
mottled skin of the Galeopithicus, which is hardly discernible from
the rough bark of the tree to which it clings. I have hardly ever
noticed such varied hues in any wild animals, although the
_Viverridae_ are somewhat erratic in colouring, as in the Indian
squirrels, and it is doubtful whether several recorded species are
not so nearly allied as to be in fact properly but one and the same.
There is much in common in at least five species of Burmese squirrels,
and it is open to question whether _S. caniceps_ and _S. Blanfordii_
are not the same. Dr. Anderson writes: "I have examined a very
extensive series of squirrels belonging to the various forms above
described, viz., _S. pygerythrus_, _S. caniceps_, _S. Phayrei_ and
_S. Blanfordii_, and of others which appears to indicate at least,
if