Zool. [mod.L., ad. Malay tūpai squirrel, in tūpai tāna ground-squirrel.] A genus of insectivorous mammals, typical of the family Tupaiidæ, including the Banxring, Tupaia peguana, of Burma and Pegu, and the Tana tupai, Tupaia tana, of Borneo, etc. (sometimes erroneously called the Tana).
1820. Sir T. S. Raffles, in Linnæan Trans. (1822), XIII. 256. Tupaia…. Snout elongated…. Habit and tail of a Squirrel. Ibid., 237. Tupaia Tana.
1824. Horsfield, Zool. Res. Java, s.v. Tupaia, The Bangsring fell under my observation during an early period of my researches in Java.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., § 179. The last family … Tupaidae, at present contains only one genus, the Tupaia or Banxring … of which only three species are known.
1868. Owen, Vertebr. Anim., III. xxx. 428. The Tupaias and some of the snouted-shrews.
