No. 1.— Mammals obtained by the Phillips Palestine Expedition. 
By GiLover M. ALLEN. 
Tue collection here reported on consists of about one hundred and 
fifty small mammals, mostly skins with skulls, presented to the Mu- 
seum of Comparative Zodlogy by Dr. John C. Phillips, who obtained 
them during his expedition (March—June, 1914) to the Sinai Peninsula 
and Palestine. His route was from Cairo eastward along the west 
coast of the Gulf of Suez, to Mt. Sinai, thence northward to Akaba, 
at the head of the Gulf of Akaba, and on to the region of the Dead Sea. 
Mr. William M. Mann, who accompanied him, made further collections 
about the base of Mt. Hermon. ‘Twenty-four species were obtained, 
some of which are yet very imperfectly known. The ranges of others 
are slightly extended by Dr. Phillips’s collections. The country to the 
south of Syria is inhabited by a typical desert fauna of genera which 
for the most part are not found north of the Dead Sea region, where 
| they give place to more strictly Palaearctic types, as Apodemus, 
fe oy Eliomys. No new species were discovered, but the fine 
series of Apodemus mystacunus from the vicinity of Mt. Hermon makes 
it possible to determine the status of the form found in the Black Sea 
forest of Asia Minor, and it is here described as new. 
| CROCIDURA RUSSULA (Hermann). 
| White-toothed Shrew. 
Jorex russulus Hermann, Zimmermann’s Geogr. geschichte, 1780, 2, p. 382. 
] 
| No specimens of this genus were met with except in the country 
bout the western base of Mt. Hermon, at Rasheya, Baniyds, Ammik, 
nd Aithenit. The series of seven skins is of very uniform appearance 
nd seems to be indistinguishable from typical russula. 
PIPISTRELLUS KUHLI (Kuhl). 
| Kuhl’s Bat. 
spertilio kuhlii Kuhl, Ann. Wetterau. ges. naturk., 1819, 4, p. 199. 
iA single specimen of this small species was taken at Shtora, Syria. 
