18G MTJEIKJ3. 



The Deseet Jeeboa-hat. 



Bescr. — Much smaller than the last, with the tail also comparatively 

 shorter and the ear smaller. Above pale rufous or sandy with fine dusky 

 lines, the hairs being blackish at the base, the rest fawn colored with a 

 minute dusky tip ; a few longer piles on the rump and thighs ; sides slight- 

 ly paler with fewer dusky lines ; all the lower parts whitish, tinged more 

 or less with fawn-color on the belly, the line of demarcation of the two 

 colors not strongly marked ; limbs pale fawn ; tail yellowish-rufous or 

 fawn color throughout, with a line of dusky-brown hairs on the upper 

 surface of the terminal half, gradually increasing in length to the tip ; 

 orbits pale ; whiskers mostly white, a few of the upper ones dark. 



Length, head and body 5 inches ; tail 4| ; ears f ; palm i ; hind -foot 

 1. 



I have not at present access to Gray's description of G. erythrourus, of 

 which there is no specimen in the Museum of the Asiatic Society, so 

 merely conjecture it to be the same from the specific name applying to the 

 Indian one, and its habitat being not far removed. At any rate it differs 

 conspicuously from the common jerboa-rat of India, and if not the same 

 as Gray's species, may be designated as Gerbillus Surriance. , When I 

 first observed this rat, I thought that it must be a casual variety of the 

 common kind, especially after Blyth's emphatic statement that he had seen 

 Gerbillus indicus from every part of India without any decided variation ; 

 but I have seen it since in vast numbers over a large extent of country, 

 all pretty constant to the description and measurements above given. 

 Its habitat is the sandy tract of country west of the Jumna, Hurriana 

 and adjacent districts. Whether it extends much further south, or 

 through the Punjab, I cannot now say, but should imagine that it will 

 be found throughout Eajpootana, part of Sindh, and the Punjab, thence 

 extending into Afghanistan. It is exceedingly numerous in the sandy 

 downs and sand-hills of Hurriana, both in jungles and in bare plains, 

 especially in the former, and a colony may be seen at the foot of every large 

 shrub almost. I found that it had been feeding on the kernel of the nut 

 of the common Salvadora oleifolia, gnawing through the hard nut, and 

 extracting the whole of the kernel. Unlike the last species, this rat, dur- 

 ing the cold weather at all events, is very generally seen outside its holes 

 at all hours, scuttling in on the near approach of any one, but soon cau- 

 tiously popping its head out of its hole and again issuing forth. In the 



