MAMMALS OF MESOPOTAMIA. 337 



Blanford gives a plate of this animal in his ' Eastern Persia, ' ii., p. 75. 

 In his description in 1875 he mentions that it is distinguished from its 

 allies by its colour and proportion. 



Distribution. — Persia and Mesopotamia. According to Trouessart Loftus 

 obtained the type at Mohommerah. 



24. Tatera bailwardi, Wroughton. 



1906. Tatera bailwardi, Wroughton, A. M. N. H., Ser. 7. XVII. p. 498. 

 Bailward's Gerbil. (Bundi Kir, Karun River) 



I) S Amara Buxton, 22-11-17 to 12-10-18. 



c? Sinn Abtar Kut Shortridge, 6-7-16, 



1 Mesopotamia Bagnall, 12-2-17. 



1 Baghdad Ingoldby, 18-12-17. 



(S Akka Kuf 



Baghdad '■' Pitman, 27-7-17. 

 imm. „ „ 14-8-17. 



3 c? 1 2 Sheikh Saad "^ Cox-Cheesman, 24-2-17 to 5-3-17. 



1 imm. „ „ ,. 14-8-17. 



1 Shahroban. i^ Indian Museum (Connor), Jan. 1919. 



In the Gerbil family the hind foot is long, but the hind legs are 

 considerably shorter than in the Jerboas. This is the most numerous of 

 the Gbrbils so far met with on the Tigris at Baghdad and below. It is the 

 size of a rat with large black eyes, soft sandy brown hair, with rufous tinge 

 and speckled with black-brown. Underparts white. The long tail is dark 

 brown above and below and pale at the sides and well covered with hair. 

 This tail marking distinguishes Tatera from all other Gerbils. 



Buxton remarks that his specimens were taken with cheese and were 

 common among lucerne patches. 



Mine were flooded out of burrows made below freshly sown garden peas, 

 on which they were probably feeding. 



Distribution. — Lower Tigris, Euphrates and Karun rivers. 



25. Tatera pitmani, sp. nov. 

 Pitman's Gerbil. 



1 2 Type. Baiji near Fatah Gorge, Tigris, Cox-Cheesman, 18-4-19. 



1 O )? v j< )j ;j •; M 



A larger species than T. baihoardi with less rufous on the back and 

 flanks. 



The chief distinction is the difference in proportions. The skull of T. pit- 

 mani being considerably the larger, while the feet of both are about the 

 same size. 



Upper surface of back sandy brown, well speckled towards the centre 

 with black brown caused by the brown tips of the hairs. Base of hairs 

 dark grey. A light area around the eye clearly defined, some of the hairs 

 being white to their bases. Under surface white, the lateral line of demar- 

 cation not specially sharply defined. 



Ears similar to back but darker. Hands and feet white, tail dark brown 

 above and below, pale buff at the sides of the basal half of the tail, termina- 

 ting in a dark brown tip with elongated hair. 



bimensiotis of the type. — Head and body 194 mm.: tail 184 mm.; hind 

 foot 41 mm. ; ear 29 "mm. 



Skull— Greatest length 49-0 mm.; condylo incisive 45'0 ; zygomatic 

 breadth 26 ; nasals 22; interorbital breadth 8; palatine foramina 9-8; upper 

 molar series 7 "2. 



Hab.~The rocky soils and foothills of the Jebel Hamrin range on the 

 N. Eastern boundary of the Iraq plain. 

 19 



