MAMMALS OF MESOPOTAMIA. 



339 



These are small Gerbils about the size of dormice. The two from Ba^^h- 

 dad are pale chestnut on the flanks, shaded to brown towards the 

 centre of the back with underparts white. The tail is darker above than 

 on the side or below. In the four from Amara the general colour of the 

 back is browner than in those from Baghdad. 



Buxton remarks from Baghdad " trapped on bare mud banks of the 

 Tigris with bait of flour paste " and from Amara he says " apparently- 

 common in bare salt desert with a few bushes of Suceda" Suceda 

 monoica is the common salt loving shrub. He also says " I kept a lot in cap- 

 tivity and they fed almost exclusively on the succulent leaves of this plant. 



The burrows are not complicated having 3 or 4 entrances, all within 3 

 or 4 feet of each other. 



The holes descend very steeply to about 12 to 18 inches below ground 

 level. I ,^ 



When you attempt to dig out these animals they scratch their way out 

 of the burrows, into the surrounding earth and definitely block the track 

 they have excavated. If you follow the main burrow you dig past the 

 occupants, which are lying up a few inches away in the soil." 



In the present state of our knowledge of this genus it is not safe to go 

 further than provisionally to place these under D. dasyurus. 



Trouessart gives the distribution of D. dasyurus as Arabia, Red Sea 

 and Oman. 



28. MeRIONES CHARON, Thos. 



1919. Meriones cliaron, Thomas, A, M. N. H. Ser. 9, Vol. Ill, p. 269. 

 Karun Desert Gerbil. 



\(S 2 2 Kazimain, Baghdad. Cox-Cheesman, 18-1-19. 



1 imm. Beled, Tigris. „ „ 21-10-18.; 



Another of the Gerbil family : slightly larger than the last. 



These were living in earths on the dry banks of irrigation channels among 

 cornland and were trapped with a bait of cocoanut. I have extracted a 

 few sentences from Thomas' description of M. charon. " Small, with termi- 

 nally crested tail, general colour above finely speckled sandy bufl', under 

 surface white, tail dull bufl'y with an upper crest of black hairs." 



These have been compared with a series of Meriones erytlirourus from 

 Shiraz and Kandahar, the reddish colour at the base of the tail is a 

 character of M. erythrourus and missing in the Mesopotamian specimens, 

 which also appear to belong to a smaller species. 



To Meriones charon the resemblance is much closer. This species was 

 found by Loftus on the mounds of Susa, and Woosman obtained the type 

 at Ahwaz, Karun river. As none of the skulls of the Tigris specimens 

 show adult formation, it has been considered advisable for the present to 

 place them provisionally under M. charon. 



29. Eattus eattus, L. 



1758. Mus rattus, Linnseus, Syst. Nat., 10th ed., p. 61. 

 Black Rat. Arabic ' jeraydee. ' 



iV.5.— This name applies to all rats and most small rodents. 



2 2 Kazimain, Baghdad. Cox-Cheesman, 30-3-19. 

 19 Busra Kilminster, 17-5-18. 

 l^ ,^ Whitehead, 12-5-18. 



Id 1$ Amara Buxton, 6-11-17 & 27-11-17. 



15 Busra May, 22-5-18. ^ 



1 J Amara Indian Museum (Connory, bep. 



1916. 



