•lo2 Mr. V. Thomas on the SDiall IlauK^tevs 



XLIV. — 0/1 the small Hamsters that have been referred 

 to Cricetulus pliaeus and canipbclli. By Oldfikld 

 Thomas. 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



The small unstriped Hamsters Avitli naked soles, mIijcIi 

 occur over an area ranging from the Crimea, Asia Minor, 

 and Palestine on the Avcst to the Altai, Kashghar, ancl. 

 Ladak ou the east, have all been either referred to one 

 species, ca\\e^ phceus, or occasionally split nj) into several on 

 size, a character that proves most illusoiy. Both their 

 nomenclature and characters still remain in much confusion. 



Firstly, I regret to say that the name jJkcus does not 

 stand for any of them, as it is antedated by an earlier term. 



In IZrS"^ Pallas described, ,of this group, the species 

 migratorius (type-locality : K. Ural, S.W. of Orenburg), 

 su/ifforusf (R. Irtish, Siberia), arenarius (Irtish), and 

 barubensis (Irtish), the first and fourth of Avhich he changed 

 in the 'Glires' % to acceduhi auAfurwiculus, while he added to 

 tliem phcens (type-locality : Lower Volga, near Sarepta). 

 By a curious fatality, not unusual in nomenclature, this 

 name, the latest of all, got complete dominance over tlic 

 others, and has been universally used to the present time. 

 No douDt the wide utilization of Pallas's well-known ' Glires' 

 was the cause of the mistakes involved. 



Putting aside sungorus and barabensis (furimci(his) as not 

 of the " phceus " group, we may first accept without hesi- 

 tation Dr. Satunin's opinion § that accediila (i. e. migra- 

 torh(s) is the same as pheeus, both being from the same 

 region of Southern Russia. This acceptance, however, 

 involves the use of the senior name, migratorius, and the 

 consequent disappearance of jihceus. Dr. Satunin aKo 

 considers arenarius, from the Irtish, as the same species. 



On laying out the Avhole Museum series assigned to 

 "• ph(£usi^' rather more than 80 in number, I find that while 

 the Central Asiatic forms are, as a general rule, larger, with 

 larger teeth and longer hair than those from the west, yet 

 that both skull and teeth vary in series of each form to such 

 an extent as to overlap each other. I therefore provisionally 



♦ Reise, ii. pp. 703-704 (1773). 



t Sungorus cannot be treated as a misprint for sonyarvs, as lias 

 commonly been done, for it not only occurs both in text and plate, but is 

 also used in the same fonn for another animal on p. 730. 



X P. 86 (1779). 



§ Mittheil. Kaukas. Mus. ii, p. 340 (1906). 



