bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



accompanying it gives its habitat as the Sinai desert, " Ad vias circa 

 fontes Mosis." The Wells of Moses (Ain Musa) near the west shore 

 of the Gulf of Suez, may therefore be considered the type locality. 

 Dr. Phillips obtained two adults near Mt. Sinai, at Wady Feiran and 

 Um Shomer respectively, and a third on the eastern side of the Sinai 

 peninsula, at Suweira, slightly to the north of Akaba. It therefore 

 probably ranges over the greater part of the Sinai desert. Bonhote 

 (Proc. Zool. soc. London, 1912, p. 226) has recorded a specimen from 

 Tor in Sinai, collected by Capt. S. S. Flower. 



The peculiar inflation of the auditory meatus causing it to touch 

 the angle of the squamosal process, and the posterior enlargement 

 of the bullae, so that they extend behind the supraoccipital and 

 notably constrict the exoccipitals, may prove to be characters of 

 generic value, when the time comes for a revision of the group. The 

 pelage is extremely soft and silky ; the pale, sand-colored hairs of the 

 upper surface of the body are minutely black-tipped. 



Gerbillus calurus Thomas. 



Bushy-tailed Gerbil. 



Gerbillus calurus Thomas, Ann. mag. nat. hist., 1892, ser. 6, 9, p. 76. 



One of the most interesting of Dr. Phillips's captures is a fine adult 

 male of this rare gerbil. Hitherto but three specimens seem to have 

 been recorded, all of which are in the British Museum. The original 

 specimen is an alcoholic without locality ; the second, also an alcoholic, 

 is from Sinai, and unfortunately in poor condition ; the third is a skin 

 with imperfect skull, from Wady Sikait, south of Gebel Sebara, eastern 

 Egypt. Dr. Phillips's specimen (the fourth to be recorded) is from 

 the Sinai region at Wady Sa'al. The type was for many years in the 

 British Museum before it was made known by Thomas, and it was 

 not till the publication of the two other records by x\nderson in his 

 Zoology of Egypt, 2, Mammals, in 1902, that its probable range was 

 indicated. The squirrel-like tail is a remarkable feature in the genus, 

 but the skull seems sufficiently typical. The measurements of the 

 present specimen are: — head and body 118 mm., tail 145, hind foot 

 33, ear 22; skull, greatest length 36.5, basal length 30, palatal length 

 19.3, diastema 8.5, zygomatic width 18.7, mastoid width 18.9, inter- 

 orbital constriction 5.5, bullae 14 X 7.5, upper molar row (alveoli) 



