MEEIONES SHAWI, SUBSP. MELANUEUS. 
267 
Specimens from Alexandria and the Sinaitic Peninsula are so much alike in external 
characters that Kiippell considered them identical, and founded his description of 
M. melaniirus on specimens from both localities, but placing Alexandria first, so 
that the specific name may be assigned primarily to the form found in Lower Egypt. 
In the skull of this form the auditory bullee do not project posteriorly beyond the 
occipitals. It thus agrees with the skulls of the typical race from Western Algeria. 
In the same year, Sundevall described the form from Sinai as M. crnssus^ giving a 
figure of the skull, showing the auditory bullae projecting beyond the occipital bones. 
Similarly coloured animals with skulls exactly agreeing with specimens from Sinai 
are found in Tripoli and Tunisia. Under these circumstances it seems advisable to 
treat all these forms as local races. 
The final arrangement of these difierent races cannot as yet be settled, but the 
available material points to the possibility of recognizing the following forms:— 
Auditory bullae level with occiput'. M. shawi (typical form), large, brown or grey; Morocco and 
North-western Algeria. M. shawi subsp. melanurus, smaller, fawn-coloured; Lower Egypt 
and ? Tunisia. 
Auditory bullw projecting behind occiput : M. crassus, Sinai; represented in Tripoli and 
Tunisia by M. crassus subsp. sellysii, if specimens from the latter localities are found to be 
distinct. 
MeEIONES shawi, subsp. MELANUEUS, Rupp. (Plate XLIII.) 
Meriones melanurus, Riipp. Mus. Senck. iii. 1845, p. 95, pi. 7. fig. 3. 
All specimens examined were obtained at Mex to the west and Ramleh to the east 
of Alexandria. 
The ears are of moderate size and when laid forwards reach to the middle of the 
eye. They are moderately rounded and oval in form, and along the little folded 
anterior margin there is a fringe of rather stiff yellow hairs with black tips, about 
5 mm. long below, and gradually decreasing in length to the upper fourth of the 
border. The ear externally and internally is partially covered with short yellowish or 
brown hairs. The skin of the ear, internally and externally, in the lower third of that 
organ is fieshy white, the remainder being nearly black. The general colour of the 
upper surface of the body is a sandy yellowish grey, darker along the back, owing to 
many of the hairs having black tips. There is a pale area above, below, and behind 
the eye, and some whitish hairs behind the ears. The under surface is whitish, with a 
tinge here and there of yellowish sandy colour on the sides. The fore and hind feet are 
covered with short whitish hairs. The tail on its upper surface is concolopous with the 
back, and the long hairs towards its end are rusty brown, or blackish in some 
specimens; it is shorter than the body and head. 
2 M 2 
