ACOMTS CAHIEINUS. 
283 
the shoulders and occiput. The spines are generally almost pale grey at their bases, 
passing gradually into darker grey at their tips, the deep colour beings chiefly confined 
to the sharp well-defined border and apices of the spines, so that when the animal is 
looked at from behind the spiny fur has a greyish-speckled appearance due to the 
paler bases of the spines becoming visible. 
Measurements taken from specimens preserved in alcohol. 
Gizeh. 
Minia. 
Mahallet. 
Haifa. 
Suez. 
Assuan. 
s- 
c?. 
d. 
$• 
6 • 
d. 
mm. 
mm. 
mm. 
mm. 
mm. 
mm. 
Head and body . . . 
84 
96 
91 
87 
98 
92 
Tail. 
100 
107 
94 
98 
104 
116 
Hind foot. 
17 
18 
18 
18 
19 
19-5 
Forearm and hand . . 
23 
23*7 
23 
23-5 
26 
26 
Ear. 
20-5 
19 
17 
18 
20 
20 
One specimen from Assuan has a rnfons tint on the sides, while two others from 
the same place differ but little from the Cairo specimens in the colour of their upper 
parts, but the whole of the throat is white and the under parts pale grey, the under 
surface of the tail being yellowish. In the specimen with a tendency to rufous sides 
(which colour also encroaches on the brownish mousy tint of the middle of the back) 
the whole of the under surface is white and the tail is yellow. A tuft of hairs behind 
the ears of this specimen is almost white. The latter specimen with another from Beni 
Hasan, for which I am indebted to Mr. Blackden, the Artist to the Egypt Exploration 
Fund, may be referable to the Acomys nubicus, Heuglini, which, besides the difference 
in colour, may be distinguished by its shorter ears and tail. 
This species is very common throughout the Valley of the Nile in Lower Egypt, 
and is generally found in towns and villages and in the houses; I found it at Mena 
House, the hotel at the foot of the Pyramids. 
[According to Mr. Sherborn (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1897, p. 287), the article on the Bats 
and that on the Ichneumon in the ‘ Descr. de I’Egypte,’ written by Etienne Geoffrey 
Saint-Hilaire, were published in 1818, together with all the remaining plates of 
Mammals ; the third and following articles to the eighth were written conjointly with 
Victor Audouin, and published, together with the Supplement (which was written by 
Audouin alone), in 1829. 
Geoffrey was in the habit of setting up specimens in the Paris Museum, registered 
in his Manuscript Catalogue under a Latin name, without publishing any description 
of the species. 
* Eeise N.O.-Afr. ii. 1877, p. 70. 
2o2 
