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Show 1 0 9 5 .] ON MAMMALS FROM PERSIA AND ARMENIA. 519 4. Oil a Collection of Mammals from Persia and Armenia presented to the British Museum by Col. A. 0 . Bail ward. By O ld f i e ld Thomas, F.R.S., F.Z.S.* [Received October 27, 1905.] (Plate X YI.f) The National Museum owes to Col. A. 0. Bailward a most interesting collection of small mammals from Persia and Armenia, obtained during the past summer on his way home from India to England. Before starting he applied to the Society's Secretary for advice on the subject, and Dr. Mitchell suggested his taking with him someone trained to collect mammals and birds. By good fortune Mr. R. B. Woosnam, one of our ablest collectors, who had already done good work in South Africa, was able to go with Col. Bailward, and the specimens now described were all trapped and skinned by him. Considering that the expedition was primarily a shooting-trip, that it never stayed more than a day or two in any place, and that the party rode something like 20 or 30 miles every day, the number of mammals obtained-about 70-is a credit to Mr. Woosnam, who also collected about 380 birds. About 31 species are represented in the Mammal collection, of which I have described five as new. Of these by far the most interesting is the beautiful large-eared mouse described as Calomyscus bailwardi, which forms a new genus entirely unlike anything hitherto known from the Old World, but allied to the North-American Peromyscus. Col. Bailward's party entered Persia at the head of the Persian Gulf, beginning work at Ahwaz, on the Karun River. From there they travelled north-eastward across the Bachtiari mountains to Isfahan, and it was in this region that the majority of the novelties were obtained. From Isfahan they went westwards to Kermanshah, and thence by way of Lake Van, Erzeroum, and Baibort to Trebizond. While the Armenian specimens obtained during the trip are most valuable, their interest is dwarfed by that of the series from Persia, for from the region travelled by Col. Bailward the only mammals that have ever been collected were those obtained in 1870-72 by the late Dr. W. T. Blanford, and described in his work on Eastern Persia J, the few collected and described by de Filippi §, and a small series obtained in 1902 by Mr. EL F. Witherby. From the character of the present collection it is * [The complete account of the new species described in this communication appears here; but since the names and preliminary diagnoses were published in the ‘ Abstract,' such species are distinguished by the name being underlined.-E d i t o r .] f For explanation of the Plate, see p. 527. j ‘ Eastern Persia,' Zoology and Geology (1876). § ‘ Viaggio in Persia,' p. 342 (1865). Piioc. Z ool. Soc.- 1905, V o l . II. No. XXXV. 35 |