NOVITATES ZoOLOeiCAE XXI. 19U. 185 



in the three biggest specimens more or less green, in the smaller ones Brownish 

 with a slight admixture of green. Undersides of all bnff, in the larger ones with 

 grey or blackish spots and patches. 



On the dunes Sc/'/ici/s officinalis and Chalcides xcpoiiles were common, while in 

 pools and ditches Tropidonotiis viperiniis was ver)' numerous. 



The collection of small mammals made good progress at Ain Sefra. A good 

 man}' specimens were trapped by Ruddle and brought in by natives, while Hartert 

 and Hilgert shot some hares, considered to belong to a new form by Mr. Thomas 

 {Nov. Zool. 1913, p. 590). 



Great numbers of moths were caught on most of the evenings with acetylene 

 lamps — sometimes many hundreds within three hours or so. 



The river Bridj is generally a harmless dribbling affair, in many places narrow 

 enough to be jumped, or even interrupted, in others forming pools and swamps. 

 In certain years, however, if heavy rains fall in the autumn on the mountains 

 around, it rises suddenly to such a height that it does much damage. On October 

 21, 1904, the river rose so extraordinarily that nearly the whole of Ain Sefra was 

 destroyed, and many natives and Enropeans lost their lives. Among those who 

 perished was the adventurous authoress Isabella Eberhardt, who was killed by the 

 falling roof of her house, after heroically saving her Arab husband. 



The barracks of the garrison, half of which consists of a portion of the second 

 regiment of the Foreign Legion, and other military buildings, are well built in 

 Moorish style above the town. Maroccans come to Ain Sefra on market days, and 

 the habits of the natives are more those of Marocco than of Western Algeria. 



On May 18 we left Ain Sefra, and arrived at Saida at half-past twelve in the 

 night. The railroad from Ain Sefra passes mostly through treeless steppe, with 

 Artemisia herba-alhn and other small plants, partly through a sea of Haifa-grass. In 

 Saida it was dull and cold, the hotel old and dirty. There is, however, a better new, 

 smaller hotel, but being recently opened we had no information about it until the very 

 last day of our stay in Saida. Unfortunately the cold and rainy weather continued 

 most of our time in Saida, which otherwise would have been more pleasant. The 

 town itself is uninteresting, though there appears to be much trade, and the second 

 regiment of the Foreign Legion is garrisoned in the fort. A fine statue is erected 

 on the square in honour of the " legionnaires " who have fallen in the wars in the 

 south of Oran. On May 21 we made an excursion by automobile to the forests 

 near and bejond the waterfall of TifFrit, N.E. by E. of Saida. These forests are 

 undoubtedly a good collecting ground, if one could stay there any length of time, 

 but they are too far to be worked from Saida. On the way we saw no less 

 than five Golden Eagles, one Booted Eagle, one Short-toed Eagle, one Buzzard. 

 In the forests some Magpies and a Coccystes glandarius were observed. Old 

 Magpies' nests were frequent, and some contained eggs of Otns scops and Falco 

 tinnunculus. 



The heights round the town are partly bare, jiartly covered with junipers, 

 olive-trees, and cornfields. They are a good collecting ground for entomologists, 

 but of birds only some Crested Larks, Wood-larks, Diplootocus moiissieri, Sykia 

 melanocephala and liortensis, Lanius senator, and a few others were seen. 



On May 23 we left Saida, travelling by train via PerrSgaux to Bon Medfa, 

 from where we drove to the idyllic Hammara R'hira, where we stayed a week before 

 returning to Alger and Europe. 



Perr6ganx is a rather pleasantly situated little town, surrounded by fertile 



