SPALAX JiaTPTIACUS. 
295 
being a uniform yellowish fawn, much paler on the sides and abdomen, dusky grey on 
the chest and throat, the anterior half of the upper surface of the head yellowish grey, 
the vibrissal ridge very strongly pronounced. It is larger than my Egyptian specimens 
and others from Palestine with which mine are identical. The fore foot of the skin of 
the Volga animal (much shrunk in its fleshy investment) measures 22^ and the hind 
foot 25^ mm. 
Unfortunately I have not been able to obtain a European specimen of Spalax in 
spirit, which I had hoped to be able to do, in order to compare the character of the 
external nose with that of Egyptian and Palestine specimens, because it appears to 
me that the differences presented by the dried nose of the Volga skin and that of the 
skin of an Egyptian rat-mole are so great as to suggest the existence of a structural 
difference in the living animal, a supposition which is also supported by the condition 
of the nose in the stuffed specimen. 
From this statement of facts it is evident that the materials in London at my disposal 
raise questions of possible racial distinctions between the animals under discussion. 
The Egyptian and Syrian rat-moles may therefore for the present be regarded as not 
more than a possible race of Spalax typhlus. 
I am aware that the European representatives have been referred to two species, but, 
as Kessler^ has pointed out, the alleged differences are purely due to age. However, 
among the specimens dealt with here the variations may be susceptible of quite 
another explanation. 
The preceding table seems to establish the racial separation of the Egyptian and 
Palestine specimens on the one hand, and the European on the other, as the skulls are 
those of adults with well-worn teeth. The dissimilarity appears to be one of size only, 
if there prove to be no differences in the form of the nose. 
[Prof. A. Nehring (SB. Gesellsch. naturf. Fr. Berl. 1897, p. 163) divides the genus 
into the following species:— 
1. Spalax microphthalmus, Giildenst. The Steppes near Novo Choperskaja on the Choper 
(Giildenstaedt) ; the environs of Bachmuth and Tanganrog in the Government of 
Ekateriuoslaw (Nordmann, S. pallasii) ; the neighbourhood of Sarepta. 
2. S. giganteus, Nehr. Petrowsk, on the west coast of the Caspian Sea; mouth of the Terek. , 
3. S. typhlus, Pall. Dondolia, Volhynia, Hungary, and Bessarabia. 
4. S. prisons^ Nehr. Pound fossil in the Harsany Mountain near Villany, Southern Hungary. 
5. S. kirgisorum, Nehr. Kirgis Steppe. 
6. S. ehrenbergi, Nehr. The neighbourhood of Jaffa, Palestine. 
7. S. (segyptiacus, Nehr. Ramleh, Lower Egypt. 
8. S. intermedius, Nehr. Tschenkenkoi, in the interior of the country, some hours from 
Iskenderun (Alexandretta) in North Syria. 
^ Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou, xxiv. 1851, pt. 2, p. 127. 
W. E. DE W.] 
