Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/145

Rh upon the great difficulty of establishing a desert province, although there can be little doubt as to the existence of a true desert fauna.

Many of the forms of animal life are characteristic of Central Asia, especially the Ounce (F. uncia), Alactaga indica, a Jerboa hitherto only known from Afghanistan, and Spermophilus concolor, amongst mammals; whilst such more widely distributed forms as Felis pardus, F. chaus, Ovis cycloceros, Capra ægagrus, &c., are also to be found, along with species restricted to Persia, representative forms of well-known families. Such are the new species of Hedgehog, Erinaceus macracanthus, Vulpes persicus, Meles canescens, Gerbillus persicus, and Gazella subgutturosa, whilst under still closer restrictions as regards range we find three species of Bats, a Jerboa, and Lagomys rufescens, a Nuthatch (Sitta rupicola), and ten species of reptiles. The fauna of the forest district along the south-east coast of the Caspian is extremely interesting, for, although on the whole Palaearctic, there are several species apparently peculiar to the locality, and also several Eastern forms unknown in other parts of Persia, such as the Tiger, Cervus Caspius (a Deer allied to C. axis, belonging to the Indo-Malayan group), and a Viper (Halys Pallasii). The existence of the Tiger in the Caspian provinces north of the Elburz range, corresponding in part to the ancient Hyrcania, was well known to ancient writers, and allusion to Hyrcanian and Caucasian Tigers must be familiar to all readers of Virgil; but the fact of a Deer of Indo-Malayan affinities being found in the same district as Cervus morral, the only true Elaphine Deer which is found in Persia, is very remarkable, and an important addition to our knowledge of geographical distribution. The birds of this district call for little remark, as the author's new species, Erythacus hyrcanus, is confessedly only a local and brilliant form of the common Robin, and Garrulus hyrcanus is one of those local forms of the Jay which drive the systemalist to despair, with the alternative of "lumping" nearly all the races together, or of making as many species as there are varieties. With regard to the wooded slopes of the Zagros, and the oak forest as far as Shiráz, the fauna, so far as known from Major St. John's collections, appears to be mainly Palæarctic, although one of the characteristic mammals is the Lion, which is found in Mesopotamia. It does not appear to exist on the tableland of Persia, nor in Balúchistán, and, so far as can be judged