MICE. RATS, AND VOLES — HARES AND PICAS 47 



Asiatic part of the Mediterranean area to India ; but it has been carried on board 

 vessels to Italy, whence it has spread to south-eastern France and Switzerland. 

 It has also been observed in south-western Germany and in North America, 

 having been carried across the Atlantic in ships. This rat has been called the 

 roof-rat, because it is often seen in Italy on the roofs of the houses. As it is 

 unknown in Persia and Afghanistan, it did not originally belong to the south- 

 western fauna. 



In Afghanistan there occurs one of the Oriental bandicoot-rats (Nesocia 

 hardwickei). All these bandicoot-rats are indigenous to the Indian region and 

 the adjoining parts of south-western and central Asia, but the spiny mice are 

 partly inhabitants of the Mediterranean region although unknown in the European 

 portion of the same. They occur, however, in North Africa as well as in south- 

 western Asia. These mice, which in eastern Africa range down to Mozambique in 

 the south, are small desert-haunting creatures of about the size of house-mice, but 

 resembling tiny hedgehogs, in having the lower part of the back clothed with stiff 

 spines instead of hairs. The pale spiny mouse (Acanthomys dimidiatus) inhabits 

 Egypt, northern Arabia, Palestine, and Sind, but may range much farther over 

 south-western Asia. It is sandy coloured above, and white below, with a total 

 length of 8 inches, half of which is taken up by the tail. The Oriental bush-rats 

 are also represented by one species (Golunda ellioti) in Sind ; and in Quetta and 

 Afghanistan we have the so-called Quetta mole (Myospalax fuscicapillus) as a 

 representative of a genus allied to the lemmings, with other species from central 

 Asia and Kurdistan. Ranging up to 5000 feet in the mountains, this rodent 

 constructs long passages in the ground, from which are thrown up heaps of earth 

 like those of the European mole. 



The hamsters are represented by the grey Cricetus (Cricetulus) phceus, which 

 ranges from Russia to central Asia, as well as by other species of the same and 

 -allied sub-genera. Equally numerous are the graceful little gerbils, which 

 are such essentially desert-rodents. The common Indian species (Gerbillus 

 indicus), for instance, inhabits the barren parts of north-western India, Sind, the 

 Punjab, western Rajputana, Baluchistan, and southern Afghanistan. It is found 

 up to a height of 4000 feet, lives in sandy deserts or semi-deserts, and is most 

 common in Sind, where it burrows everywhere beneath the roots of bushes, or 

 in sandy hillocks. Its food consists of roots and seeds of all kinds. In colour it is 

 sandy grey above and dirty white below, its length ranging from 5 to 7 inches, 

 that of the tail being a little less. Somewhat smaller than the Indian gerbil is 

 the Afghan G. erythrura, which also inhabits Baluchistan and southern Persia 

 Although frequenting barren country, this is often found in the neighbourhood 

 of human habitations. The dwarf gerbil (G. nanus), first discovered in Baluchistan 

 and Sind, probably also inhabits Arabia and the coast of Abyssinia. Several other 

 species have been found in Sind, the east European province, and the Oriental 

 region. 



Among the hares, the Afghan Lepus tibetanus ranges over a 

 ares an icas. ^^ ^^ .^ _^_fgj ian j stan an( j Baluchistan as well as the valley of the 



upper Indus ; but farther east, in Sind, Each, and the districts adjoining the Punjab, 

 it is replaced by the Sind hare (L. day anus), which is a true animal of the desert. 



