552 On a neio Jird front Southern Palestine. 



LVIir. — A new Jird (Meriones) from Southern Palestine. 

 By Oldfield Thomas. 



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



Mr. p. a. BuxtoX, the donor of so inanj interesting mammals 

 tVoni Palestine and Mesopotamia to the National Museum, 

 has now sent three examples of a Meriones of the "6" group, 

 allied to M. li/bicus and syrius, but evidently distinct from 

 both. It may be called 



Meriones saci'amenti^, sp. n. 



General colour above as in M. sj/rius, though the li^ht 

 eye- and ear-patches are a little more evident. Under surface 

 wholly white to the bases of the hairs, while in both si/rius 

 and Ii/hictts the hairs are slaty at their bases. Tail buffy like 

 the body for its basal part, not ochraceous, its end tulted and 

 blackened as in the allied species, the extreme tip wiiite in 

 the type (imperfect in the other two .specimens). 



Skull of the same size as in lyhicus and syriuo, and with 

 similarly developed bullae and supra-meatal triangles, all 

 three being members of grouj) b of my ])aper on the genus f. 

 But the interorbital width is markedly narrower than in 

 either, a character evidently diagnostic of the species. 



Dimensions (measured in the Hesh) : — 



Head and body IGO mm. ; tail 150 ; hind foot 36 ; 

 ear 18-5. 



Skull : median length 40 ; greatest diagonal length 41*6 ; 

 cnudylo-incisive length 32 ; nasals 15"2; interorbital breadth 

 GT ; meatal bieadth 23'8; palatine foramina 7'8 ; upper 

 molar series 5*9. 



Hub. Southern Palestine. Tyjie from 10 miles south of 

 Beer-sheba. 



Type. Adult male. B.M. no. 22. 10. 4. 1. Original 

 number 529. Collected 17lh July, 1922, and presented by 

 P. A. Buxton, E.sq. Three specimens examined. 



This South-Palestine Jird is only nearly related to the 

 above two species of the b group, and from these may be 



* Beer-sheba = the well of the oath or covenant {saa' amentum). 

 t Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (9) iii. p. 263 (1919). 



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