﻿PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



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SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol.102 Washington: 1952 No. 3305 



NOTES ON MAMMALS FKOM THE NILE DELTA REGION 



OF EGYPT 



By Henry W. Setzer 



From July 12, 1946, to April 9, 1947, Ens. P. Quentin Tomicli col- 

 lected mammals from the Nile Delta while serving with Naval Medical 

 Research Unit No. 3. In addition to the large collection made by 

 Ensign Tomich, Lt. S. M. Wheeler, of the United States Typhus Com- 

 mission, obtained some specimens in the Cairo area. Earlier, in 1924, 

 Miss Annie M. Alexander obtained a small collection from the Cairo 

 area and from the Fayum. The former two collections are on deposit 

 in the United States National Museum while the latter is on deposit at 

 the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California 

 (MVZ) and has been made available for study at this time by Dr. 

 Alden H. Miller. 



Since impetus is being given study of the role wild mammals 

 play in diseases of man, a brief diagnosis of the external characters 

 plus comments on taxonomic problems as relating to the commoner 

 mammals from Egypt, as based on the above-mentioned material, 

 will be useful to epidemiologists working in the Nile Delta region. 



It will be noted that in certain cases names have been validated from 

 Etienne Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, 1803. The "Catalogue des Mammi- 

 feres du Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle" meets all require- 

 ments for Linnaean names as established by the International Commis- 

 sion on Zoological Nomenclature. In all instances the descriptions 

 are clearly recognizable. It is believed that the statement of Isidore 

 Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, to the effect that his father never intended the 

 above work for a scientific treatise, should not be accepted, inasmuch as 

 the work is clear, concise, and was published and circulated. 



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