934 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



4-4; palato-sinual length, 7*8; maxillary tooth series, 6-8; front 

 of^ * to back of m ', 4. 



Hab\ — Dizak district^ Persian Baluchistan. Type from Shastun. 

 Alt. 3,820'. 



%>5e;— Adult? .B. M.No. 19, 11, 8, 2. Original number 125. 

 Collected 28th July 1916, and presented by Col. J. E. B. Hotson. 



This well marked species is perhaps a large desert coloured 

 eastern representative of the S. European M. emarginatus, but 

 further material will be needed before its affinities can be certainly 

 determined. Larger than emarginahis, it is on the other hand much 

 smaller than the bright coloured Asiatic species M. furmosus and its 

 allies, to which there is also a certain resemblance. 



Meriones persiciis baptistae, subsp. n. 



A fine bushy tailed jird, with larger bulla3 than in true per sic us. 



Size as in ijersicus. General colour gerbil buff, the hairs 

 '' warm-buff" with their tips blackish, so that the general tone is 

 darker than in Kelat M. persicus. A more ochraceous line along the 

 edge of the white on sides. Ears coloured like the head. Tail heavily 

 tufted, the long hairs attaining 22-24mm. in length ; base above 

 ochraceous buffy lined with black, under surface mixed whitish and 

 buffy ; tuft at end black, mixed with some white lines. 



Skull as in tvwe per sicm, except that the bullas are larger, mor« 

 lully inflated, and generally project backwards behind the level of 

 the back of the supraoccipital (there is (?ome optical illusion in this, 

 the bulla? often appearing to project behind the supraoccipital 

 level when reallj^, as judged by a straight-edge, they only just 

 equal it). In persicus they fall decidedly short of the same level. 



Dimensions of the type: — Head and body, 132 mm.; tail, 156; 

 hindfoot, 36 ; ear, 23. Skull : greatest length in middle line, 

 43*3 ; diagonal length to back of bullae, 44. 3 ; Condylo-incisive 

 length, 39 ; zj^gomatic breadth, 22-7 ; nasals, 18-5 ; interorbital 

 breadth, 7'8 , bi-meatal breadth, 23*3; palatal foramina, 9; 

 diagonal horizontal length of bullae, 16; front of meatal inflation to 

 back of bulla, 12-2; upper molar series, 5-6. 



Hah :— Pasht Kuh, S. W. Baluchistan, about 27" 2'/ N., 65° 

 12' E. Others from Gwambuk Kaul and Kuldan in the same 

 region. 



Type :---0\d j . B. M. No. 19, 11, 7, 69. Original number 455 

 Collected 24th March 1918 and presented by Col. J. E. B. Hotson. 

 Four specimens. 



Taking provisionally as representing persiciis, Col. Hotson's 

 series from Kelat, in which the bullse are exactly of the same size 



