ORDER CARNIVORA: CARNIVORES 285 



frontiers of Sind through parts of Afghanistan, Baluchistan and 

 Persia and Mesopotamia to Syria and Palestine .... To what 

 extent it survives in these Asiatic countries is not known." (Anony- 

 mous, 1935, p. 147.) 



In 1925 a cub was secured at Jumaimah, Muntafq, Iraq, and in 

 1928 two cubs were taken near Busiya on the Shamiyah Desert. 

 None of the local Arabs had seen a Cheetah before. (Corkill, 1929, 

 pp. 700-702.) 



Danford and Alston (1880, pp. 52-53) report on the Cheetah in 

 Syria as follows: "A skin of the Cheetah was presented to Danford 

 at Biledjik, on the Euphrates, by his host Sheik Mustapha, who 

 stated that the animal had been killed among the rocks near Sevi, 

 a small village about five hours down the river on the Mesopotamian 

 side ; it was the only specimen which he had ever seen. This Society 

 [the Zoological Society of London] has received more than one 

 specimen from Syria, and it is not improbable that the species may 

 be found in some parts of Asia Minor proper." 



Tristram wrote in 1884 (p. 19) of this species in Palestine: "This 

 graceful Leopard is scarce, but still haunts the wooded hills of Galilee 

 and the neighbourhood of Tabor. East of Jordan it is far more com- 

 mon, and is much valued by the Arabs." 



The Cheetah has now become very rare in Palestine. Yet it is 

 still pretty common in the southern steppe. Its use for the chase is 

 now quite outmoded. (Aharoni, 1930, p. 332.) It "still lives in the 

 Negeb, in Transjordania and rare specimens also persist in the Pales- 

 tinian mountains. The author saw many skins, sold by Beduins 

 from Beersheba." (Bodenheimer, 1935, p. 105.) More recently Pro- 

 fessor Bodenheimer writes (in litt., March, 1937) that the animal 

 is now on the verge of extinction or extinct and that nothing can be 

 done to preserve it in Palestine, but that perhaps there is still a 

 chance to do so in Transjordania. 



In 1909 Carruthers (1935, pp. 60, 70) found Cheetah tracks on the 

 north side of the Jabal Tubaiq, Arabia, approximately 150 miles 

 east of the head of the Gulf of Akaba. 



Turkestan Cheetah 



ACINONYX JUBATUS RADDEi Hilzheimer 



Acinonyx raddei Hilzheimer, Sitz.-ber. Ges. naturf. Freunde Berlin 1913, no. 5, 

 p. 291, 1913. (Based upon a specimen purchased in Merv, Russian 

 Turkestan (Turcoman S. S. R.).) 



This Cheetah seems to occur in very small numbers in the southern 

 parts of Russian Turkestan. The animals of northern Persia and 

 northern Afghanistan may belong to the same form. 



