NOTES ON MESOPOTAMIAN MAMMALS. 475 
This they proceeded to do and after a short though fierce struggle, 
they emerged scratched but triumphant with the biggest <¢rd nest 
hideous type of wild cat I have ever seen. It really was a magnificent creature, 
considerably larger than a Jackal and standing as it did a dealhigher. In colour 
it was a pale, though bright brownish orange or ginger, with rich reddish brown 
and chestnut stripes. The beast was well secured with cloths and straps, and 
_I had intended trying to keep it alive, but unfortunately it escaped on the way 
back to camp. I subsequently saw other though much smaller specimens 
whilst shooting in the thick cover on the banks of the Tigris and R. Adhaim 
at various points as far North as Daur, but failed to secure any specimens. 
From March to July 1917, while on the Euphrates at Feluja and the Hindiyeh 
Barrage, I did not come across this species but the country that I traversed 
in those parts was not suitable, and thick cover was rarely visited as it was the 
close season for small game shooting. 
In early March 1917, while shooting Hares and Black Partridge in scrub cover 
on the Tigris banks between Kut and Baghdad I saw a smaller type of wild cat, 
a greyish buff in colour and spotted blackish, at which I could not get a shot. 
HeErpEsTEs PERsIcuS—The Persian Mongoose—Noted principally in the Palm 
Groves in the vicinity of the cities of Busra, Amarah, and Baghdad on the Tigris. 
No specimens were secured and no type of ICHNEUMON ever noted. Without my 
notes I cannot for certain say whether I have many records of the Mongcose, 
from the Euphrates, but there were a lot in scrub by a palm grove near the 
Hindiyeh barrage, where I found a clutch of Marbled duck’s eggs they had con- 
sumed. 
Hy#NA HY#NA—The Striped Hyena.—When at Feluja on the R. Euphra- 
tes in March, April and May 1917, I knew of the same collection of Hyena 
Earths which Ludlow mentions. They were situated afew miles rorth of the 
town in a group of low marland gypsm mounds not very far from the river, and 
which actually formed a portion of the ruins of the ancient Persian fortress of 
Anbar, but I never came across the owner. In the broken country near the 
Tigris, where it is joined by the Shatt-el-Adhaim, this hyzena was quite 
common during October and November 1917, and on more than one ogcasion 
they were caught in the open by our pig-sticking enthusiasts and hunted for 
miles, but they were practically impossible to overtake even in the open 
country. 
I often saw them out on the elevated plain above the river soon after dawn ard 
watched them return to the broken ground, and during some manceuvres one day 
we put one up in broken country as late as 11-0 in the morning. In this same 
area a sepoy who went off his head and wandered out into the desert and shot 
himself, was eaten by hyzenas, who just left the skull and a few bones. 
Some of our advanced posts in the broken and elevated country on either side 
of the Adhaim were much worried nightly by these beasts who stole many a live 
sheep and, though shot at, always got away unscathed with their prey. 
While in camp at Bait-al-khalifa from November 1917 till March 1918, 
traces of hyzena were to be found everywhere in the broken country, ancient 
ruins and in the steep banks of the huge and ancient Nahrwan Canal, from the 
R. Adhaim to Daur which was as far North asI ever went. Reports of these 
being seen on both banks of the Tigris in those parts by reliable observers were 
quite frequent, though I never actually saw any myself. 
CANIS AUREUS—The Jackal.—There is little for me tosay about this species 
which I found exceedingly common both on the Tigris and Euphrates, wherever 
T happened to be in camp from 1916 to 1918. I have no special notes on their 
habits, except that I found them breeding freely in holes and’ mounds along the 
banks of the Magasis and other canals just down stream of Kut-el-Amarah, on 
the right bank of the Tigris during June 1916, when numerous litters of 5 or 
6 cubs had just been born and the camps were full of youngsters kept by the 
