﻿358 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 102 



Description. — Animals from near Heliopolis have the upper parts 

 Warm Buff with a moderate admixture of black ; color purest on sides, 

 flanks and cheeks ; entire ventral surface, dorsal and ventral surfaces 

 of hands and feet, muzzle, postorbital and postauricular spots, white ; 

 tail above as color of back, shading to a black penicillate tip; purer 

 color on ventral half of tail. All pigmented hairs plumbeous at 

 base. Eye bordered by narrow black ring. Ears light brownish, 

 finely covered with white hairs inside and out. Part of vibrissae 

 white, part black. 



Measurements. — Averages and extremes of three males and seven 

 females from five miles east of Heliopolis, were, respectively : Total 

 length 265.3 (256-274), 242 (226-261) ; length of tail 126.3 (123-132), 

 120.0 (108-132) ; length of hind foot 33.3 (33-34), 31.5 (30-33) ; ear 

 from notch 18 (17-19), 16 (11-18) : occipitonasal length 39.2 (38.6- 

 39.7), 35.9 (34.3-37.6); length of palate 16.7 (16.4-17.1), 16.1 

 (15.5-16.9); length of palatal foramina 6.6 (6.5-6.7), 6.3 (5.6-6.6); 

 length of auditory bulla 14.8 (14.5-15.6), 13.9 (13.1-14.7); crown 

 length of upper molar series 4.7 (4.6-5.1), 4.5 (4.4-4.7) ; least inter- 

 orbital width 6.0 (5.5-6.4), 5.9 (5.4-6.3); weight 85.6 (77-100), 

 59.0 (50-71). 



Remarks. — EUerman, in March 1941 (p. 533), places the species 

 Meriones shavjii as a pure synonym of Menones lihycus lihycus^ and 

 on the same page (533) places Merionss crassus as a subspecies of 

 M. lihycus. In May 1947 he elevated M. crassus to full specific rank 

 and removed M. shawii from synonomy, making it a subspecies of 

 M. lihycus. In raising M. crassus to full specific rank, he considered 

 that nine subspecies properly belonged to this former subspecies. 

 The subspecies he placed under M. crassus belonged to the species 

 M. lihycus., M. schoueshoei, M. erythrourus., M. ismahelis and M. 

 arimalius. In October 1947 EUerman and Chaworth-Musters listed 

 eight subspecies of M. lihycus, nine of M. crassus, and placed M. shawii 

 as a full species with three subspecies. In none of the papers cited 

 above do EUerman, or his coauthor, Chaworth-Musters, give any 

 reason for suppressing or resurrecting species or subspecies. 



In "A Revision of the Genus Meriones,^'' Chaworth-Musters and 

 EUerman (1947) cite as key characters: Hind claws dark, M. lihycus.^ 

 and hind claws pale, M. crassus. In addition to the claw character he 

 gives the joined or closely aproximated processes around the supra- 

 meatal triangle as a character distinguishing M. lihycus. In M. 

 crassus the processes are not supposed to be closed or closely approxi- 

 mating. In specimen U.S.N.M. No. 282509 one hind foot has dark- 

 colored and the other hind foot has pale-colored claws. Several other 

 specimens in the series show a similar condition but not quite so pro- 



