ten eo 
GERBILLUS. are 
The food of this animal is grain, grass, and roots, but Kellaart men- 
tions certain carnivorous propensities, for one night several of them 
nearly devoured an albino rat which had been put into the same cage 
with them. McMaster says of its agility: “I have seen them when 
released from a trap baffle and elude dogs in the most extraordinary 
manner by wonderful jumps made over the backs, and apparently into 
the very teeth of their pursuers.” 
Buchanan-Hamilton’s assertion that “these animals live in holes 
which they dig in the abrupt banks of rivers and ponds” is misleading. 
They may do so occasionally, but in general they choose sandy plains. 
The female is prolific, bringing forth from eight to twelve young ones, and 
Dr. Jerdon states that it is said to have occasionally as many as sixteen 
to twenty. With regard to Kellaart’s accusation of its being carnivorous 
at times, I may say I have noticed such tendencies amongst several other 
rodents which are supposed to be purely vegetarians. I have also 
known ruminants take to flesh-eating when opportunity offered. 
No. 318. GERBILLUS HURRIANA. 
The Desert Jerboa-Rat ( Jerdon’s No. 171). 
Hasitat.—The sandy deserts west of the Jumna and Hurriana ; also 
in Afghanistan according to Horsfield’s Catalogue, and probably in 
Rajpootana, Sindh, and the Punjab. 
DescripTion.—Pale rufous or sandy above, with fine dusky lines, the 
hairs being blackish at the base, the rest fawn coloured, with a blackish 
tip very minute ; sides*paler, with fewer dusky lines; under-parts white, 
tinged more or less with fulvous or fawn on the belly ; limbs pale fawn ; 
orbits pale; whiskers whitish, a few of the upper ones dark; tail 
yellowish-rufous or fawn colour throughout, with a line of dusky brown 
hairs on the upper surface of the terminal half, gradually increasing in 
length to the tips. 
Size.—Smaller than the last species. Head and body, 5 inches ; 
tail, 44. 
Jerdon says of this rat that it is “‘ exceedingly numerous in the sandy 
downs and sand-hills of Hurriana, both in jungles and in bare plains, 
especially in the former, and a colony may be seen at the foot of every 
large shrub almost. I found that it had been feeding on the kernel of 
the nut of the common Salvadora oleifolia, gnawing through the hard 
nut and extracting the whole of the kernel. Unlike the last species, 
this rat, during the cold weather at all events, is very generally seen 
outside its holes at all hours, scuttling in on the near approach of any 
one, but soon cautiously popping its head out of its hole and again 
issuing forth. In the localities it frequents it is far more abundant than 
I have ever seen G, Zdicus in the most favourable spots” (‘Mammals 
of India,’ p. 186). 
