ON MxMIMALS OBTAINED IN DARFUR. 247 



18. On the Mammals obtained in Darfur by the Lynes- 

 Lowe Expedition, By Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S., 

 F.Z.S., and Maetiit A. C. Hinton, F.Z.S. 



[Received January 23, 1923 : Read March 20, 1923.] 



Thanks to the geiierosity and public spirit of the two explorers, 

 the British Museum has received as a donation tlie whole of the 

 fine collection of Mammals made by Rear-Admi)-al Hubert Lynes 

 and Mr. Willoughby P. Lowe during their recent expedition to 

 Darfur. 



The expedition took place during the whole of 1921 and the 

 early part of last year, and a complete survey of the country 

 was made, equally of th*^ comparatively flat desert i-egion round 

 El Fasher, tlie capital of Darfur, the still more desert area north- 

 •ward to the bare and unproductive Jebel Maidob, the zoologically 

 unknown dominating mountain Jebel Marra, running up to a 

 height of 10,000', and, finally, of the lower region of Wadi Aribo, 

 in tbe south-western part of Darfur, where the drainage is towards 

 Lake Chad. 



ISTo mammal collection had ever been made in this area, so 

 that the present fine series (which numbers upwards of 800 

 specimens) adds very greatly to the material available for the 

 study of African Mammalia, and we have reason to be most 

 grateful to the donors for the generosity and patriotism which 

 have resulted in this notable accession to the Museum — the 

 largest single collection that the latter has ever received. 



On the whole, the species contained in the collection are most 

 nearly related, as is natural, to those of Kordofan and other 

 parts of the Egyptian Sudan, and are generally difierent from 

 those of the more humid Bahr-el-Ghazal. 



So far as the mammals are concerned, Darfur would seem to 

 be just on the southern boundary of the northern desert fauna, 

 the collection containing quite a number of forms which are 

 either the most southern records of northern species (Jaouhts 

 jaciolus, Dipodillus camjjestris group, etc.) or the most northern 

 records of southern ones {Steatomys, &c.). 



The great mountain Jebel Marra, isolated as it is from other 

 high ground, has naturally a number of interesting forms peculiar 

 to it and difierent from those of the plains. Thus there is a 

 mountain species of Striped Mouse (Lemniscomi/s) found on it, 

 which we have named in honour of Admiral Lynes, and a 

 Gerbil {Dijyoclillus lowei), whose nearest ally is found in Algiers. 



In all, the collection proves to consist of 62 species, of which 

 we have had occasion to describe 19 as new, either as species or 

 subspecies. 



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