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THE 130 TH. ANNIVERSARY OF THE MONGOLIAN GERBIL.
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This drawing was taken from Milne Edwards, H. 1868-1874.
The following text is written in 1867 in the "Annales des sciences naturelles (Zoologie)" (ser. 5, vol. 7, pp 375-377). This is the first scientific text written about the Mongolian gerbil, here called Gerbillus unguiculatus. The very first descriptions of the Mongolian gerbil can be found in Father David's "Journal d'un Voyage en Mongolie" (Bull. Nouvelles Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris 3, pp 18-96). Beneath the text you will find an English translation.
introduction
(Text about other animals skipped)
about the gerbils
TRANSLATION:
Observations on several mammals of Northern China
By Sir Alphonse Milne Edwards
Father Armand David, missionary of the Lazarists Congregation in Peking, has assembled important zoological collections containing a great number of new species in China and especially in Mongolia. I have already reported about some of them and will give a description of several others, belonging to the order of Insectivora, Rodentia and Ruminantia in this article which is an abstract of the total work.
The gerbil (Dipus annulatus) that father David has seen on the sandy hills of upper Mongolia can not be confused with any other already described gerbils. Apart from the characteristics of the skull and the teeth, this Dipus can be distinguished by a ring of white hairs surrounding the black tuft at the end of the tail.
There are also two other gerbil species existing that live in large groups on the stony and bare plains of Mongolia. The smallest species (Gerbillus brevicaudatus) *, as the name indicates, is remarkable by the shortness (brevity) of its very hairy yellow tail. The body is yellowish brown on top, and white at the underside; its nails are white.
The second species (Gerbillus unguiculatus) ** differs from the first by its longer tail, its greyish brown dorsal fur, sandy white fur at the ventral side; its nails are black and more robust.
* The Gerbillus brevicaudatus is nowadays known as the Meriones meridianus psammophilus.
** In 1908, the Mongolian gerbil was first referred to as Meriones unguiculatus by Oldfield Thomas in "Proceedings of the general meetings for scientific business of the Zoological Society of London" pp 104-110.
(Thanks to Fred Petrij for his literature search, scanning and providing of the French text and to Vera Brückmann for her help in translating)
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