ALLEN: MAMMALS FROM THE BLUE NILE VALLEY. 331 



albipes is identical with the Blue Nile rat, Sundevall's name may stand 

 for it. 



At El Garef we found a large colony of this rat among an open 

 scrub growth of small dhoum palms, weeds, and bushes. They make 

 well-worn runways from one clump of palms to another, or among the 

 weed tangles, and live in holes dug in the ground in these shelters. 

 They are apparently for the most part nocturnal. 



The measurements of an adult male of E. macrolepis from Gabardi, 

 beyond Singa, are: — head and body 142, tail 149, hind foot 24, ear 19. 

 This is a very brightly colored specimen, with a buffy suffusion over 

 the entire upper surface, and with a buffy line in the middle of the 

 belly. The pure buffy tips of the hairs of the sides make a distinct 

 stripe in this species, from the nose to the ankle, bounding the white 

 of the belly. 



Of Epimys azrek, a species of the multimammate group, the type of 

 which also came from Roseires, we could find nothing. It may be at 

 once distinguished by its smaller dimensions and by its pure white 

 belly hairs, which latter in macrolepis are dark gray at their bases. 



Tatera robusta (Cretzschmar). 

 Nile Valley Tufted-tailed Gerbille. 



Meriones robustus Cretzschmar, Riippsll's Atlas reise nordlichen Afrika. 

 Saugeth., 1826, p. 75, pi. 29, fig. b. 



Wroughton (1906, p. 494) in his review of the members of this genus 

 shows that Sundevall's Meriones murinus is probably the same as the 

 M. robustus of Cretzschmar, the type of which is still in existence and 

 is labeled " Ambukol, Nubien." The latter name Wroughton applies 

 to the tufted-tailed gerbilles of the Nile Valley, and includes among 

 his list of specimens in the British Museum, a single example from the 

 Blue Nile, at Roseires, collected by Lord Lovat's expedition. We 

 found this the common species all along the Blue Nile. It lives in 

 tangled growth of grass, bushes, and small palms, the shelter of which 

 it commonly shares with the native rat {Epimys macrolepis). 



Tatera flavipes, sp. nov. 



Buff-footed Gerbille. 



Type. — Skin and skull 14,491 M. C. Z., adult female, from Aradeiba, 

 above Roseires, Blue Nile, Sudan. January 22, 1913. 



