142 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 275 



eye ring black; mystacial, rostral, and scapular areas Light Buff; 

 vibrissae relatively long with a preponderance of black hairs; ears 

 relatively long and pinnae sparsely haired, Antimony Yellow basally 

 and Saccardo's Umber distally, with small tuft of buffy hairs on 

 anterior margin; dorsal surfaces of forelegs, hindlegs, and feet white; 

 ventral surfaces of hindlegs with strong suffusions of plumbeous- 

 colored hairs; palmar and plantar surfaces of feet entirely naked, the 

 latter with six distinct metatarsal tubercles; fore and hind feet each 

 with five digits bearing claws; tail relatively short, distinctly bicolored 

 in most specimens, ranging from tan to dark brown dorsally and from 

 a medium buff to almost white ventrally (in some darkly colored 

 specimens, the tail is almost uniformly colored throughout) ; tail 

 markedly penicillate colored. Avellaneous to dark brown on distal 

 one-third; basal portions of all dark colored hairs Deep Plumbeous; 

 underparts white with occasional suffusion of buff. Skull: Noticeably 

 small and compact for the species; auditory bullae small, but mod- 

 erately inflated ventrally; zygomata heavy and narrow in breadth; 

 interorbital breadth narrow; braincase, notably the parietals, flattened. 



Comparisons. Members of this subspecies can be readily dis- 

 tinguished from those representing Gerbillus campestris haymani and 

 Gerbillus campestris wassiji from farther north in Cyrenaica and 

 western Egypt by the markedly smaller size of body and cranium, 

 darker, more variable dorsal color, and more prominently tufted tail. 



In general characters, these gerbils from Cufra Oasis most clearly 

 resemble those of Gerbillus campestris dodsoni, whose range is to the 

 west and north but differ in their smaller body size, shorter tail, and 

 smaller size of all cranial measurements. 



For comparison with Gerbillus campestris brunnescens, see account 

 of that subspecies. 



Remarks. De Beaux (1932, p. 379) described Dipodillus dodsoni 

 patrizii (—Gerbillus campestris patrizii) as a new subspecies separable 

 from Dipodillus dodsoni dodsoni (— Gerbillus campestris dodsoni) pri- 

 marily by its smaller size. Setzer (1957) placed G. c. patrizii in syn- 

 onymy under G. c. dodsoni and stated that the characters used by 

 de Beaux in separating patrizii from dodsoni were all typical of sub- 

 adult specimens of the latter. Setzer examined no specimens of typical 

 G. c. patrizii, however, and apparently based this assignment solely 

 on comparisons with the characters given in the original description. 

 In cranial and external measurements, the large series of adidt topo- 

 types collected by the present author agree closely with those given 

 by de Beaux in the original description. In studying these gerbils 

 from Cufra, extreme care was taken to select only fully adidt speci- 

 mens. The present study indicates that gerbils from Cufra, primarily 



