ity offered.

NO. 318. GERBILLUS HURRIANAE.
_The Desert Jerboa-Rat_ (_Jerdon's No. 171_).

HABITAT.--The sandy deserts west of the Jumna and Hurriana; also in
Afghanistan according to Horsfield's Catalogue, and probably in
Rajpootana, Sindh, and the Punjab.

DESCRIPTION.--Pale rufous or sandy above, with fine dusky lines, the
hairs being blackish at the base, the rest fawn coloured, with a
blackish tip very minute; sides paler, with fewer dusky lines;
under-parts white, tinged more or less with fulvous or fawn on the
belly; limbs pale fawn; orbits pale; whiskers whitish, a few of the
upper ones dark; tail yellowish-rufous or fawn colour throughout,
with a line of dusky brown hairs on the upper surface of the terminal
half, gradually increasing in length to the tips.

SIZE.--Smaller than the last species. Head and body, 5 inches; tail,
4-1/2.

Jerdon says of this rat that 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, during 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 cautiously popping its head
out of its hole and again issuing forth. In the localities it
frequents it is far more abundant than I have ever seen _G. Indicus_
in the most favourable spots" ('Mammals of India,' p. 186).

NO. 319. GERBILLUS CRYPTORHINUS.
_The Lobe-nosed Jerboa-Rat_.

HABITAT.--Yarkand.

DESCRIPTION.--after Mr. Blanford, who first described and named the
species: "Colour above sandy rufescent, some specimens rather more
rufous than others; below white, the two colours sharply divided on
the sides; cheeks pale; supercilia whitish; feet white; tail above
rather more rufous than the back, paler and occasionally whitish
below, becoming dark brown or blackish above near the end, and with
the slight tuft of longer hairs at the end of the same dark colour;
fur soft and glossy, about half an inch long in the middle of the
back, all the basal portion being at least three-quarters of the
length, dark ashy; the terminal portion pale yellow brown to pale
rufous, with numerous longer hairs with b